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Informist, Friday, Jul. 24, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Union Cabinet Friday approved a draft bill to effectively tackle the problem of exam paper leaks. The proposed legislation, which builds up on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, focusses on "solving the problem" rather than just making punishment stricter, a government source privy to the details said. The legislation is likely to be brought to Parliament next week.

 

In a late-night video message Thursday and in a social media post earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to bring stringent legislation to handle paper leaks, with fast-track courts to try such cases.

 

These developments come amid ongoing students' protests across the country against repeated instances of question paper leaks in various competitive exams. The outrage burst out after the leak of the pre-medical National Eligibility cum Entrance Test question paper in May, with demands for Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation.

 

"The 2024 law helped the government in containing paper leaks to a large extent. However, some lacunae remained, which will be dealt with in the new Bill," the source said. The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 set out rules for key aspects such as audit of the readiness of the examination centres, candidate check-in, biometric registration, security and screening, seat allocation, question paper setting and uploading, exam invigilation, and providing scribes.

 

Opposition parties have joined the chorus demanding Pradhan's resignation and have set it as a condition before taking part in a debate on the issue in Parliament. However, highly placed government sources said no such move for resignation was under consideration and that the "entire government as well as the party" was "standing firmly behind the minister".  End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Shubhayan Bhattacharya

 

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