Bill To Prevent Paper Leaks To Be Introduced In Parliament Today; Check Details
Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions, Jitendra Singh, will seek permission to introduce the bill. The proposed legislation suggests a prison term ranging from three to five years for paper leak incidents. In cases involving organised crimes, the bill recommends a stricter sentence of 5 to 10 years of imprisonment.
The bill intends to combat cheating in several public exams, such as the CUET, UPSC, SSC, Railways, NEET, and JEE.
According to media reports, if the investigation team finds evidence of the crime, service provider companies involved in examinations might face a fine of up to Rs 1 crore, recover the examination’s proportional cost, and be restricted from conducting any public tests for four years.
The bill states that an officer holding the level of assistant commissioner of police or deputy superintendent of police shall conduct investigations. Moreover, the Union administration can also assign any central agency to handle the probe. The bill has broadly classified 20 offenses and unethical practices, such as answering sheet manipulation, impersonation, and document tampering for the purpose of shortlisting or determining a candidate’s grade or ranking.
A high-level National Technical Committee on Public Examinations is also to be established, according to the bill, to provide guidelines for protecting digital platforms, guaranteeing robust IT security systems, putting electronic monitoring into practice, and creating national standards for infrastructure.
