Gandhinagar: The State assembly in Gujarat today unanimously passed a bill provisioning strict actions and penalties for irregularities in public exams.

The bill namely Gujarat Jaher Pariksha (Ger riti Atkavava Babat) Vidheyak or the Gujarat Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2023  was introduced in the State assembly on the first day of the budget session today by MoS Home, Harsh Sanghavi after the address by the Governor.

The bill has the provision of up to Rs 1 crore fine and up to 10 years imprisonment for those who leak the exam paper. For cheating in exams, the guilty person will face Rs. 3 lakh fine and 1-year imprisonment. The guilty candidate will be banned from exams for two years. The bill proposes assets of guilty persons be seized. The entire expenses of the exam shall be recovered from those guilty in some cases. The offense will be considered non-bailable. Investigation into paper leak crimes shall be done by Policeman, not below the rank of Inspector, and preferably by DySP.

The provisions under the bill will not cover the exams conducted by State-funded Universities and secondary and higher secondary education boards. The Universities and State Examination boards will continue to penalize the students in cheating cases as per their rules.

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During the discussion on the bill, Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia had criticized the particular provision of police action against the student found guilty. Modhwadia opined that juvenile students must not face police action. He said the students may face actions by the university or the body that conducts the public exams. Some Congress MLAs describe the bill as a copycat from the similar one passed in the Rajasthan assembly last year.

Apparently taking note of suggestions by Modhwadia and other MLAs, the State Board and Universities were excluded from the bill draft. The debate over the bill continued for 7 hours. MoS Harsh Sanghavi thanked legislators for unanimous support to the bill.

Gujarat has witnessed a number of paper leak cases mainly related to competitive exams for recruitment. The government was under pressure after it had to cancel the recruitment exam for the vacant post of Junior Clerk in the Panchayat department. Over 9.5 lakh youths had registered for this exam, which had to be postponed, hours before the start of the exam due to a paper leak from the printing press in Hyderabad.  DeshGujarat