10-year jail, Rs 1 crore fine: Gujarat's passes bill to curb paper leaks

Facing severe criticism for failing to stop repeated leaks of question papers of government recruitment examinations for the last many years, the Bhupendra Patel led BJP government on Thursday proposed a Bill in the state Assembly to bring a special law to deal with such cases. The bill has provision of upto 10 years of jail term and upto Rs1 crore as fine if anyone found guilty of the offence.

On the first day of the budget session of Gujarat Assembly in Gandhinagar, the bill was presented for discussion amidst protest by the opposition Congress. The Congress was by and large in favour of the bill and termed the move as "der aaye durust aaye (better late than never) but demanded that the state should not charge examination fee from the candidate for appearing in the exams. The opposition criticised the government for failing to protect the interests of lakhs of youths who appeared in over a dozen competitive exams whose question papers were leaked.

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The bill was presented by minister of state for home Harsh Sanghavi amidst sloganeering from the Congress MLAs led by its legislative party leader Amit Chavda. The Bill was passed late in the evening unanimously. The bill had also proposed cheating in Gujarat secondary and higher secondary Education Board exams a criminal offence. After Congress raised this issue, the government said it would be rectified.

"If any person, including examinee, whether entrusted or authorized with the conduct of public examination or not, in conspiracy or otherwise indulges or attempts to indulge in unfair means or contravenes or abets to contravene any of the provisions of the act, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment of ten years and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than ten lakh rupees which may extend to Rs1 crore," the proposed bill stated.

It said that the special law was an "urgent need to restore public confidence in the sanctity of selection to public posts and the requirement of ensuring fairness to candidates who invest time and resources in attempting to clear through a selection. With a view to secure and sustain the confidence of the public in general and to ensure unquestionable trustworthiness in the public recruitment examinations, the government of Gujarat proposes to bring this legislation to check use of unfair means in examinations," the bill stated.