Anti-cheating Bill proposes 5-year imprisonment, Rs 10 lakh fine for exam candidates using unfair means

NEW DELHI : The Lok Sabha on Monday approved a new Bill to curb unfair practices in public exams which includes leaking question papers or assisting candidates in this act, tampering with question papers or computers, violating security measures, conducting fake examinations, among others.

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024, makes such malpractices a non-bailable offence with punishments of three year imprisonment for individuals, that can be extended up to five years, and a fine up to Rs 10 lakh.

If a service provider or the examination authority is found to be guilty, they can be fined upwards of Rs 1 crore with imprisonment up to five years that can be extended to 10 years.

Public examinations will include all large-scale examinations held by the central government including the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The Bill will now be presented at the Rajya Sabha. If the Bill is cleared at the Upper House then it will be sent to the President for final approval. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 1944, will also be amended to include unfair means in public examinations as a punishable offence.

What’s in the new Bill to stop cheating in exams?

The central government said that 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”. The Bill is aimed at “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 government also said that malpractices in public examinations lead to delays and cancellation of examinations and this “adversely impacts the prospects of millions of youth”.

It also said that at present, there is “no specific substantive law” to deal with unfair means adopted or offences committed by various entities involved in the conduct of public examinations by the central government and its agencies. The centre said that state governments can later bring in their own bills modelled on the central law.

What constitutes as cheating or unfair practice?

The new anti-cheating Bill has defined the unfair means that are liable to be punished. These include:

• Leaking question papers or answer keys

• Being part of a group to leak question papers or answer keys

• Accessing question papers or the answer sheets without authorization

• Providing answers to the questions during examinations

• Directly or indirectly assisting any candidate without authorization

• Tampering with answer sheets

• Altering the assessment unless to correct a mistake approved by authority

• Violating the norms and standards for the public examination

• Tampering with any documents necessary for the final merit list or shortlisting candidates

• Deliberate violation of security measures to aid unfair means of conduct during exams

• Tampering with computer network or the computer system

• Manipulation of seating arrangements, allocation of seats and shift, to aid unfair practices

• Threatening or restraining the public examination authority or obstructing the examinations

• Creating fake websites to cheat or make money

• Conducting fake examinations, admit cards or offer letter letter to cheat or make money

What are the punishments if individuals or groups are found cheating?

If an individual is found to be guilty of any of the unfair practices listed above he will be liable for a non-bailable offence with punishments of three year imprisonment, that can be extended up to five years, and a fine up to Rs 10 lakh. If the individual refuses to pay the fine, the prison sentence can be extended further.

If the service provider, usually computer centres that hold online exams, are found guilty of aiding cheating they will be fined up to Rs 1 crore and “proportionate cost of examination shall be recovered from such service provider”. They will also be barred from conducting any public examination for a period of four years.

The individuals responsible for running the computer centres will be fined up to Rs 1 crore with a jail term of at least three years, which can be extended to 10 years.

If someone from the examination authority is found guilty of colluding with the crime, they will be punished with at least Rs 1 crore fine and imprisonment of up to five years that can be extended up to 10 years.