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Informist, Friday, Jul. 24, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Indian National Congress Friday dismissed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's offer to set up fast-track courts to deal with cases of examination paper leaks as a "midnight panic promise" and "eyewash". The opposition party pointed out that such courts can be set up under existing laws. Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said the promise of fast-track courts is "an attempt to show responsiveness when there is none".

 

"Actually, just this morning the Delhi High Court has constituted a new fast-track court with immediate effect to hear cases under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024," Jairam said in a social media post. "Fast-track courts can easily and clearly be set up under existing laws as well."

 

Referring to Modi's post on X and a late-night video message to agitating students, in which he promised to set up fast-track courts to deal with paper leak cases, Ramesh said the prime minister was only attempting to fool the youth. He said fast-track courts work only when investigation is thorough and time-bound, and when there is a "political will" to see the investigation through.

 

"The Modi government's 'neeyat' over the last 12 years has been clear: to deny that paper leaks have occurred and to suppress investigations," the Congress Rajya Sabha member said, adding that the education ministry officially denied before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education that a paper leak had occurred in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Undergraduates 2026.

 

"The Modi government deliberately buried and denied the evidence of widespread irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 despite the extremely fishy clustering of exam toppers in a handful of test centres," the Congress leader further said.

 

The Union Cabinet Friday cleared a draft legislation for tackling exam paper leaks, with a source saying the new law focuses on "solving the problem" in its entirety rather than on just the punitive aspect.

 

Meanwhile, the Cockroach Janta Party announced that it would again give a "Jul. 20-like call" to hold even a "bigger" protest march to Parliament if the education minister does not resign "in two days". The announcement came after a two-hour meeting of the cockroach party representatives with Union ministers J.P. Nadda and Jitendra Singh at the Constitution Club here.

 

"The government has agreed in-principle to compensation for NEET-affected families and no legal action against protestors," the youth movement's spokesperson, Ashutosh Ranka, posted on X. "Further, it has requested time till tomorrow for response on Pradhan's resignation." He said the ministers were apprised of "increasing anger and discontentment" in the public, which "won't stop until Pradhan's resignation".

 

However, a highly-placed government source ruled out Pradhan's resignation, saying the entire Cabinet and the party is "standing firmly" with the education minister. "Stepping down is the easiest thing to do. But it would mean running away from responsibility," the source claimed.  End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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