Paper leak: Proceedings against accused in NEET and NET cases to be subject to strict new law

NEW DELHI: The government has decided to take legal action against those involved in manipulating this year’s NEET-UG as well as the UGC National Eligibility Test to become university teachers under the Examinations Act (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act which has just been notified, a decision which would mean that the alleged wrongdoers would face harsher punishment than what they would have faced under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

Sources in the government said that although the alleged leak of NEET-UG and UGC-NET documents predated the notification of the new central law on Saturday, the CBI will investigate the offenses and file a case against the accused under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act which was enacted in February during the last session of the previous Lok Sabha. The Ministry of Personnel, Grievances and Public Pensions on Monday also notified the rules for conduct of public examinations by the Centre, which prescribe the procedures for conducting investigation and filing reports against persons involved in cheating during public examinations. This means that the students as well as those involved in paper leaks in Bihar and elsewhere will face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to Rs 1 crore. Similarly, students found to have resorted to unfair means in places like Godhra can face a sentence of at least three years along with a fine of Rs 10 lakh.

The Act aims to prevent unfair practices in public examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railways, Sector Recruitment Examinations banking and the National Testing Agency (NTA), among others.


According to the rules, educational institutions, coaching centers or any other entity found to be complicit in facilitating unfair means may be subject to legal action, including fines and other sanctions. The involvement of “coaching centers” in recent irregularities is already the subject of investigations. Coaching institutes and their staff as well as examination authorities and service providers face up to 5 to 10 years in prison.

These measures are significantly stricter than the current regulations on cheating, forgery and paper leakage, which carry a maximum prison sentence of three years, and will apply to irregularities in exams currently under review. investigated, like NEET-UG and UGC-NET by CBI. .

These rules require the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to establish norms, standards and guidelines for computer-based testing (CBT), among other responsibilities. The rules include provisions regarding “the engagement of the services of other government agencies by the public review authority”, “the development of norms, standards and guidelines” and “the reporting of incidents of means or of ‘unfair offenses’, among others. “The National Recruitment Agency, on behalf of the Central Government, shall, in consultation with stakeholders, prepare norms, standards and guidelines for the computer-based test mode of examination, which shall be notified by the Government central,” the rules state. . These guidelines are expected to cover “standard operating procedures for registration of public examination centers”, “space requirements in computerized examination centers”, “seating arrangements”, “specifications and layout computer nodes”, “server specifications”. and network infrastructure,” and “specifications of electronic platforms for conducting computer-based testing,” among others.

Pre-exam activities, such as pre-audit of exam preparation at public exam centers, candidate registration, biometric registration, security and screening, seat allocation , preparation and loading of question papers, invigilation during the examination, post-examination activities, and guidelines for the provision of scribes will also be part of the standards.