Centre’s anti-cheating bill passed in Lok Sabha

The bill to curb cheating and other unfair means in various public examinations was recently  passed  in the Lok Sabha.

The objective of the Bill is to bring greater transparency, fairness and credibility to the public examination systems, the legislation stated.

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024, moved by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions mentions the kinds of unfair means in examinations that are punishable by law once enacted, and the punishment for the offences.

“The objective of the Bill is to bring greater transparency, fairness and credibility to the public examination systems and to reassure the youth that their sincere and genuine efforts will be fairly rewarded and their future is safe,” the bill stated.

“The Bill is aimed at effectively and legally deterring persons, organised groups or institutions that indulge in various unfair means and adversely impact the public examination systems for monetary or wrongful gains,” the bill added.

The draft law aims to contain cheating in various public examinations, including those conducted by the Union and state public service commissions, railways, and entrance examinations for medical, engineering and university programmes.

Offences under this bill:

The bill identifies the following unfair means and offences during public examinations.

1.Question paper or answer key leaks

2. Participation in collusion with others to effect question paper or answer key leaks
   3. Accessing or taking possession of question paper or an Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) response sheet without authority
3. Providing solution to one or more questions by any unauthorised person during a public examination

   5. Directly or indirectly assisting the candidate in any manner unauthorisedly in the public examination
   6. Tampering with answer sheets including OMR response sheets;

4. Altering the assessment except to correct a bona fide error without any authority
   8. Willful violation of norms or standards set up by the central government for conduct of a public examination on its own or through its agency.
5. Tampering with any document necessary for short-listing of candidates or finalising the merit or rank of a candidate in a public examination.
6. Deliberate violation of security measures to facilitate unfair means in conduct of a public examination.

   11. Tampering with the computer network or a computer resource or a computer system

   12. Manipulation in seating arrangements, allocation of dates and shifts for the candidates to facilitate adopting unfair means in examinations

7. Threatening the life, liberty or wrongfully restraining persons associated with the public examination authority or the service provider or any authorised agency of the Government; or obstructing the conduct of a public examination.