Clean Public Service Examinations

On Tuesday Lok Sabha passed the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024. This Bill is meant to  curtail  unfair means in the recruitment examinations at the national  level. This is meant to infuse transparency and accountability in the recruitment process. The Section 3 of this Bill underlines approximately fifteen actions that are tantamount to using unfair means. These acts have been defined in terms of monetary or wrongful gain. Primarily these acts are leakage of question paper or answer key or part thereof or colluding in such leakage. Even the possession of the question paper or Optical Mark recognition (OMR) sheet without authority. Providing the solution to one or more questions by any unauthorised person during a public examination. In other words any person assisting the candidate in any way during the public examination will be punishable crime. Not only that the Law has vast expanse and it includes the tampering with any document necessary for shortlisting of candidates or finalising the merit or rank of a candidate. Keeping in view the role played by the artificial intelligence that includes the computers the Law clearly says that the   tampering with  the computer  network or  a computer resource  or a computer  system ,creation of a fake website, conduct of fake examinations, issuance of fake admit cards  or offer letters to cheat  or  for monetary gains will  be illegal acts. The Law defines the public examinations as well. Under section 2 (k) it has been defined as  any examination  conducted by  a public examination  authority  listed in the schedule of the Bill  or any such authority  as may be notified by the Central Government. Five examination authorities have been included in this ambit primarily. These include the Union Public Service Examination (UPSC) that conducts the Civil Services Examination, Combined Defence Services Examinations, Combined Medical Services Examinations, Engineering Services Examinations, etc. The Staff Selection Commission(SSC) that recruits for the Group C(non-technical)  and Group B (non-gazetted) jobs in the  central government. The Railway Recruitment Boards (RRB’s) that recruit Groups C and D in the Indian railways. The Institute of  Banking and  Personnel Selection(IBPS) that recruits at all levels  for the nationalised banks  and Regional Rural Banks (RRB’s).The National Testing Agency(NTA) that conducts the  JEE (Main),NEET-UG,UGC-NET, the Common University  Entrance Test(CUET),etc. Besides these designated public examination authorities it includes all the Ministries or Departments of the Central Government and their attached and subordinate offices for the recruitment of the staff will be governed by this Law. There has been kept a scope for the addition of new authorities in the schedule through a notification depending on the requirement. The Law underlines the punishment for the violations in the Section 9.The Bill states that all offences shall be cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable. It means that an arrest can be made without a warrant and the bail will not be a matter of right in such cases. The magistrate has been empowered to decide whether the accused can be released on bail or not. For those indulging in the unfair means there cane  three to five years of imprisonment  and a fine up to Rs. 10 lakh. In case of the failure to pay the fine there is provision for an additional punishment of imprisonment as per the Bhartiya Nyaya Samhita, 2023.It is clearly stated in the Section 10(1) of the Bill. The list goes on. Thus the Public Examinations (Prevention  of Unfair Means) Bill,2024 is aimed at effectively  and legally deterring  persons, organised groups or institutions that indulge  in various  unfair means  that adversely impact the  public examination system for the monetary and wrongful gains. This Bill on becoming the Law will act as the model draft for the states to adopt at their discretion aiding them to prevent the criminal elements from disturbing the conduct of their state level public examinations.