Anti paper leak bill with stricter punishment introduced in Lok Sabha

Government on Monday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to amend the anti-paper leaks law with stricter punishment of up to 10 years in jail and Rs 50 lakh fine, within days of large-scale student protests against the NEET fiasco rocking the nation that forced Dharmendra Pradhan to resign as education minister.

The proposed legislation was introduced by Minister of State for PMO Jitendra Singh amidst protests and sloganeering by the Opposition demanding a response from the government over the police crackdown on students during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led July 20 protest march to Parliament.

According to the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, investigations into paper leak cases are to be completed within two months.

The bill says that individuals involved in paper leaks or unfair means in exams will get jail terms for a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 10 years, and a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh.

For organised crimes, the bill proposes a minimum sentence of seven years and a fine of up to Rs 10 crore.

The present law has provisions for a minimum of three to five years of imprisonment to curb cheating and those involved in organised crimes of cheating face five to 10 years of imprisonment and a minimum fine of Rs 1 crore.

All the states and UTs will be empowered to set up fast-track courts, which will conduct hearings swiftly and complete the trial within three months of filing of the chargesheet, according to the bill.

The Centre will be empowered to set up a special task force to investigate cases of paper leaks in certain circumstances, it says.

After the introduction of the Bill, Speaker Om Birla, in accordance with the procedure, called the names of senior opposition leaders like Saugata Roy (TMC), Manish Tewari (Congress), NK Premachandran (RSP ) who wanted to speak against the introduction of the bill.

As none spoke, Minister Singh was asked to introduce the bill. After the introduction, Birla asked the members to participate in the discussion as all parties have been demanding a discussion on the NEET paper leaks.

"It is the first step towards improving the public examination process. Instead of sloganeering, you should discuss the bill in the House. The government will try and incorporate the improvements suggested by you," Birla said.

As the opposition protests continued, the Speaker adjourned the House till 2 pm.

The government announced it was bringing in the proposed legislation after student protests led by the CJP over the NEET paper leak issue gained momentum.

Protests by opposition parties over the NEET issue led to a washout of proceedings in the first session of Parliament. The Opposition's stand on the new bill is still not clear, with Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi saying they will act on the basis of consensus.

The 2024 law was brought in when the government faced raging paper leak controversies. Before this legislation, there was 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 Act aimed to prevent unfair means in the public examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the railways, banking recruitment examinations and the National Testing Agency (NTA), among others.

In the wake of student protests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised a law to deal with cases like the NEET-UG paper leak. He also said that cases of accused in such cases will be tried in fast-track courts.

The CJP on Saturday called off its 36-day agitation after Pradhan resigned as education minister and the government accepted its other demands.

Modi on Sunday also announced the constitution of a high-powered task force headed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to recommend reforms to make the exam system leakproof.

The bill introduced in the Lok Sabha notes that in recent years, there have been some incidents of question paper leaks and malpractices in examinations conducted by public examination authorities, "which tend to affect the transparency and fairness of the public examinations system".

The amendment bill seeks to empower all the state governments and UT administrations to designate any court of session to be a special fast-track court to try offences under the proposed law.

It also provides that the proceedings in such courts are continued on a day-to-day basis and the trial is completed within three months from the date of filing of the chargesheet.

It also empowers the central government to constitute a special task force for investigation of any offence, if necessary.

The bill had provisions for "engagement of services of other government agencies by public examination authority", "preparation of norms, standards and guidelines" and "reporting of incidents of unfair means or offences" among others.

Pre-examination activities such as pre-audit for the examination readiness of the public examination centres, candidate check-in, biometric registration, security and screening, seat allocation, question paper setting and loading, invigilation in the examination, post-examination activities and guidelines for providing scribes were also part of the norms.

The Bill outlines 15 illegal acts including leaking question papers, tampering with OMR sheets, creating fake websites and issuing fake admit cards.

(Source: PTI)