‘Fine up to $120K, 10 years in jail,’ Bihar brings anti-paper leak bill amid NEET row

Amid the ongoing political slugfest over question paper leak row in India, the eastern state of Bihar has taken a step ahead to curb the menace and other malpractices in government recruitment examinations. State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary on Wednesday (Jul 24) tabled the Bihar Public Examinations (PE) (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024 in the Bihar assembly. The bill was passed with a voice vote.

Key provisions

The bill lays down provisions for three to 10 years of imprisonment with a fine that can go up to Rs 1 crore ($120,000).

Under the law, all offences would be cognizable and non-bailable.

This comes after the union government had brought the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, in February, to curb malpractices in public examinations. In India, individual states also possess the power to frame legislations related to the education sector.

Significance

Bihar has been at the centre of the NEET paper leak controversy.

The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police revealed that medical aspirants had paid INR 30,00,000 to 50,00,000 each to brokers to obtain question papers before the May 5 examination.

Later, the EOU seized various documents, including bank cheques and candidate roll codes, from the accused.

“The most recent trigger for bringing the anti-cheating law is the NEET-UG paper leak. The state government was left embarrassed because of the involvement of the Nalanda solver gang. Earlier this year, there had been cancellation of teachers recruitment examination in the wake of a paper leak,” a Bihar government spokesperson was quoted as saying by local media.

Amidst the paper leak controversy, the Bihar Public Service Commission Mains examination 2022 was also postponed owing to allegations of paper leak. The constable examination 2022 was also cancelled later on.

Bihar government now wants to send out a clear message to the public that it’s serious about tackling the menace and bringing justice to the victims as well as punishing the perpetrators.

(With inputs from agencies)

Vikrant Singh

Geopolitical writer at WION, follows Indian foreign policy and world politics, a truth seeker. 

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}