Gujarat passes bill to prevent paper leak; imposes Rs 1 cr fine, 10 years jail

The Gujarat Vidhan Sabha on Thursday passed a bill to prevent unfair means and leakage of question paper in public examinations. The bill has prescribed maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment and fine of not less than Rs 1 crore. The first bill of 2023, named ‘The Gujarat Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair means) Bill, 2023’ has been passed in the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha.
Provisions of offences and penalties have been made in the bill such as the examinee of competitive examination (excluding students of 10th, 12th and University) indulging in unfair means shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years along with fine not less than one lakh rupees. There is also a provision made for imprisonment in case if the default of payment of a fine.
If any person, including the examinee, conspires or indulges in unfair means shall be punished with imprisonment for not less than five years up to 10 years and shall also be liable to pay a fine of not less than 10 Lakh rupees.
Also, to curb the organised crime in conspiracy with the examination, the person found guilty of such organised crime, shall be fined one crore rupees along with imprisonment of a minimum of seven years and a maximum of 10 years.
The examinee, convicted of the offence, will also be debarred from any public examination for two years as per the new bill.
The property can also be confiscated to recover any wrongful gains by the convicted.
Provision has also been against the person of the management or the institution to pay all costs and expenditures related to the public examination, in case found guilty and can be banned
forever.
Earlier in January, the Gujarat Government had to cancel the Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board – Junior clerk recruitment examination, hours before it was scheduled, owing to the paper leak.