GUWAHATI: The Central Government introduced a new anti-cheating bill in the Lok Sabha on February 5, in a bid to curb paper leaks and use of unfair means, and organised malpractices in recruitment examinations like the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam, Staff Selection Committee (SSC), etc and in entrance tests such as NEET, JEE and CUET.
Under the ‘Prevention of Unfair Means Bill, 2024’, anyone caught cheating would face a minimum of three to five years of imprisonment, while those involved in organised crimes of cheating will face five to 10 years of imprisonment and a minimum fine of ₹1 crore.
The anti-cheating Bill would cover all entrance examinations held by the Union Public Service Commission, the Staff Selection Commission, the Railways, banking recruitment examinations and all computer-based examinations conducted by the National Testing Agency.
The Bill was introduced by Jitendra Singh, the Union Minister of Science and Technology, who 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.”
However, the Bill also protects the candidates appearing in the examination from the punitive provisions, as they will be governed under the provisions of the existing unfair means policy of the respective examination conducting authority
The Indian Government also announced that a High level National Technical Committee on Public Examinations will be set up which will “look into developing protocol for insulating digital platforms, devising ways and means for developing foolproof IT security system, ensuring comprehensive electronic surveillance of the examinations centres and formulating national standards and service levels for both, IT and physical infrastructure, to be deployed for conduct of such examinations,” stated a press release on the Press Information Bureau website.
