NEET questions leaked: Will arrested aspirants be punished under new anti-paper leak law? (2024)

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The main accused in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate 2024 (NEET-UG 2024) paper leak case has confessed on Thursday, according to several media reports.

The suspected mastermind, Amit Anand, has admitted to selling the question paper a day before the exam.

Anand said he received between Rs 30 and 32 lakh for the question paper.

The police have arrested 13 people in the case thus far.

The development came a day after the education ministry on Wednesday cancelled the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) conducted by the National Testing Agency after reports that the integrity of the examination may have been compromised.

The action from the education ministry, coming a day after nine lakh aspirants appeared for the UGC-NET 2024, has left many students and parents shocked.

This also comes in the backdrop of a massive row on over alleged irregularities in the results of the medical entrance test National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) – also conducted by the NTA – which is currently before the Supreme Court.

These developments have shone a renewed spotlight on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 – a new anti-paper leak law.

But what do we know about the law? What punishments does it prescribe for offenders?

Let’s take a closer look

What do we know about the law?

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024, was passed both Houses of Parliament in February.

It became law after President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent.

The idea behind the law is to bring in greater transparency, fairness and credibility to the public examination systems and to reassure the youth that their sincere and genuine efforts will be fairly rewarded and their future is safe.

It came in the backdrop of a number of recent paper leaks including a teacher recruitment exam in Rajasthan, Common Eligibility Test (CET) for Group-D posts in Haryana, recruitment exam for junior clerks in Gujarat and constable recruitment examination in Bihar.

As per News18, the law defines a “public examination” as test conducted by a “public examination authority” listed in its Schedule or any “such other authority as may be notified by the Central Government” under Section 2(k).

The law covers entrance examinations conducted by

• Union Public Service Commission

• The Staff Selection Commission,

• The Indian Railways

• Banking recruitment examinations

• All computer-based exams conducted by NTA

The law mentions “leakage of question paper or answer key”, “directly or indirectly assisting the candidate in any manner unauthorisedly in the public examination” and “tampering with the computer network or a computer resource or a computer system” as offences done by a person, group of persons or institutions.

It also makes punishable “creation of fake website to cheat or for monetary gain”, “conduct of fake examination, issuance of fake admit cards or offer letters to cheat or for monetary gain” and “manipulation in seating arrangements, allocation of dates and shifts for the candidates to facilitate adopting unfair means in examinations.”

What about the punishments for offenders?

As per News18, Section 9 of the law makes all offences under it cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable.

This means suspects can be arrested without a warrant.

The law mandates a punishment of a minimum of three to five years of imprisonment to curb cheating.

“Any person or persons resorting to unfair means and offences” will land up in prison for three to five years, and will face a fine up to Rs 10 lakh. If the convict fails to pay the fine, “an additional punishment of imprisonment shall be imposed, as per the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023,” Section 10(1) of the law states, as per News18.

The law also takes aim at organised gangs and institutions that are involved in paper leaks.

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Under Section 10(2) of the law, a service provider is defined as an institution that gives “support of any computer resource or any material, by whatever name it may be called.”

Not only does it mandate a prison term of 3 to 10 years and a 1 crore fine, it also bans the provider from conducting a public exam for four years.

The law defines “organised crime” as unlawful activity by a group of persons colluding in a conspiracy “to pursue or promote a shared interest for wrongful gain in respect of a public examination.”

It makes “threatening the life, liberty or wrongfully restraining persons associated with the public examination authority or the service provider or any authorised agency of the government; or obstructing the conduct of a public examination” a punishable offence.

No person or group of persons or institutions shall collude or conspire to facilitate indulgence in any such unfair means, the proposed law says.

The law’s Section 11(1) states those participating in organised crime can be imprisoned “for a term not less than five years but which may extend to ten years” and a fine “which shall not be less than Rs 1 crore.”

It also bars any person, who is not entrusted or engaged with the work pertaining to the public examination or its conduct or who is not a candidate, from entering the premises of the exam centre.

The law states that it serves as a model for states to adopt at their discretion.

“This would aid states in preventing the criminal elements from disrupting conduct of their state level public examinations,” the law states.

An officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police or Assistant Commissioner of Police shall investigate any offence, the law states.

‘Not meant to harass youth’

However, students who appear for these competitive exams are not under the purview of the laws.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh, when the bill was passed by Parliament, explained, “Very cautiously, we have kept the bona fide candidates out of the purview of the law, be it a job aspirant or a student. So the message does not go that this new legislation is meant to harass the youth of this country. It is only meant to deter those who are playing with their future and thereby the future of the nation.”

“The future of our youth up to 40 years of age, who comprise 70 per cent of our population, is at stake, who are stakeholders in the Viksit Bharat of 2047,” Singh added.

The law also mandates the setting up of a high-level national technical committee on public examinations that will make recommendations to make the computerised examination process more secure.

The committee shall look into developing protocols for insulating digital platforms, devising ways and means for developing foolproof IT security systems, ensuring electronic surveillance of examination centres and formulating national standards and services for both IT and physical infrastructure to be deployed for conduct of such examinations.

Mastermind confesses

News18 reported that Anand, the NEET paper leak mastermind, in his confession letter to the police said the aspirants were made to memorise the exam.

Anand, who is from Bihar’s Munger district, oversaw the illegal scheme from a rented apartment in Patna.

The Patna Police has arrested 13 people in the case.

Of these, four have been identified as NEET candidate Anurag Yadav, his uncle Sikandar Yadavendu, Nitish Kumar and Anand.

As per Business Today, Sikandar is a junior engineer from the Danapur Municipality.

Anand has also admitted to participating in a number of other paper leaks.

“I went to meet Junior Engineer Sikandar at the Danapur Municipal Corporation office for some personal work… I divulged to Sikandar my ability to procure leaked papers for competitive exams and assist candidates in passing them. Subsequently, Sikandar expressed his interest in aiding NEET aspirants and agreed to the terms of payment, " Anand wrote in his confession as per Business Today.

‘Fresh date soon’

Education Ministry officials Thursday said no complaints were received about the UGC-NET exam but a suo motu action was taken on the basis of inputs available with them to protect students’ interest.

Education Ministry Joint Secretary Govind Jaiswal said the details of the inputs cannot be shared as the matter has been referred to the CBI and is currently under investigation.

“No complaints were received but the inputs we received from agencies indicated that the integrity of the exam has been compromised. The action was taken suo motu to safeguard interests of the students,” he said.

“A fresh date for the exam will be announced soon,” Jaiswal told reporters.

With inputs from agencies

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