The Bihar Assembly on Wednesday passed a Bill aimed to curb the curse of questions paper leaks and other malpractices in government recruitment examinations in the State. The Bihar Public Examinations (PE) (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024, was tabled by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and passed with voice vote amidst a walkout by the Opposition.
The Bill has the provision of an imprisonment term of three to five years and a fine of ₹10 lakh. if a service provider whether a government entity or a private agency engages in malpractices, it will face a fine of ₹1 crore and four year termination of it services.
The Minister-in-charge, Mr. Chaudhary, introduced the Bill on behalf of the State government in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. All crimes under this law will be cognisable and non-bailable. Now the paper leak will also be investigated by DSP rank officers.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has implemented the law at the national level and now the Bihar government is also going to implement the law. Earlier, the law in Bihar in 1981 had the punishment of six months. This time we have made a strict law. Those involved in the mischief will be sentenced to three to five years and fined up to ₹10 lakhs. There is a punishment and fine up to ₹1 crore for those who commit crime in an organised manner,” Mr. Chaudhary said.
To take strict action against the criminals who leak the papers of examinations like UGC-NET, UPSC, SSC, Railway Recruitment, Banking, the Modi government has made an anti-paper law. The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024 that has provision for up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to ₹1 crore for malpractices and organised cheating in government recruitment exams was notified by the Union government to come into effect from June 21. On February 6, the Parliament passed the Bill.
Under the new Bill in Bihar, the cost of the examination will also be recovered from the service provider and they would be blacklisted for four years. Along with this, if there is involvement of any group, then there will be a punishment of 5 to 10 years and a fine of ₹1 crore. There is also a provision to confiscate the property of the institution.
Paper leak is quite often in Bihar. The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) had to cancel the Bihar teacher recruitment exam 2024 due to paper leak.
Last year, the question paper of Bihar Constable Recruitment Examination 2023 went viral on social media leading to a cancellation of the exam.
In 2022, BPSC had to cancel the 67th Combined Competitive Preliminary Exam due to paper leak.
The recent NEET-UG question paper leak case has already brought a lot of embarrassment to Bihar after many of the accused have been arrested from the State.
Last year, even the neighbouring Jharkhand assembly had passed a Bill to prevent cheating in the competitive exams. The Jharkhand Competitive Examination (Measure for Control and Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Bill, 2023 having strict provision of life imprisonment and fine up to ₹10 crore was passed on August 3, 2023.
