The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024

(1) This Act may be called the Public Examinations(Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. (2) It shall come into force on such date1 as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-- (a) "candidate" means a person who has been granted permission by the public examinationauthority to appear in public examination and includes a person authorised to act as a scribe on hisbehalf in the public examination; (b) "communication device" shall have the same meaning assigned to it in clause (ha) ofsub-section (1) of section 2 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000); (c) "competent authority" shall mean the Ministry or a Department of the Central Governmentadministratively concerned with the public examination authority; (d) "computer network", "computer resource" and "computer system" shall have themeanings respectively assigned to them in clauses (j), (k) and (l) of sub-section (1) of section 2 ofthe Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000); (e) "conduct of public examination" shall include all the procedures, processes and activities,as may be prescribed, for being adopted for the conduct of public examination; (f) "institution" means any agency, organisation, body, association of persons, business entity,company, partnership or single proprietorship firm, by whatever name it may be called, which isother than the public examination authority and the service provider engaged by such authority. Explanation.--For the purposes of this clause, it is clarified that "company" includes a companyas defined in clause (20) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2003); or a limited liabilitypartnership firm as defined in clause (n) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Limited LiabilityPartnership Act, 2008 (7 of 2009); (g)"notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette and the expression"notify" shall be construed accordingly; (h) "organised crime" means an unlawful activity committed by a person or a group ofpersons indulging in unfair means in collusion and conspiracy to pursue or promote a sharedinterest for wrongful gain in respect of a public examination; (i) "person associated with a service provider" means a person who performs services for oron behalf of such service provider irrespective of whether such person is an employee or an agentor a subsidiary of such service provider, as the case may be; (j) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act; (k) "public examination" means any examination conducted by the public examinationauthority, as specified in the Schedule, or conducted by such other authority as may be notified bythe Central Government; (l) "public examination authority" means an authority as specified by the Central Governmentby a notification, from time to time for conducting the public examinations; (m) "public examination centre" means such premises, which is selected by the serviceprovider or otherwise selected by the public examination authority, to be used for conduct ofpublic examination and which, amongst others, may include any school, computer centre,institution, any building or part thereof and the same shall include the entire periphery and landappurtenant thereto which may be used for security and other related reasons for conduct of thepublic examinations; and (n)"service provider" means any agency, organisation, body, association of persons, businessentity, company, partnership or single proprietorship firm, including its associates, subcontractors and provider of support of any computer resource or any material, by whatever nameit may be called, which is engaged by the public examination authority for conduct of publicexamination. (2) Words and expressions used herein but not defined and defined under any other law for thetime being in force, shall have the same meanings as assigned to them in those laws.

The unfair means relating to the conduct of a public examination shall includeany act or omission done or caused to be done by any person or group of persons or institutions, andinclude but not be restricted to, any of the following acts for monetary or wrongful gain--- (i) leakage of question paper or answer key or part thereof; (ii) participating in collusion with others to effect leakage of question paper or answer key; (iii) accessing or taking possession of question paper or an Optical Mark Recognitionresponse sheet without authority; (iv) providing solution to one or more questions by any unauthorised person during a publicexamination; (v) directly or indirectly assisting the candidate in any manner unauthorisedly in the publicexamination; (vi) tampering with answer sheets including Optical Mark Recognition response sheets; (vii) altering the assessment except to correct a bona fide error without any authority; (viii) willful violation of norms or standards set up by the Central Government for conduct ofa public examination on its own or through its agency; (ix) tampering with any document necessary for short-listing of candidates or finalising themerit or rank of a candidate in a public examination; (x) deliberate violation of security measures to facilitate unfair means in conduct of a publicexamination; (xi) tampering with the computer network or a computer resource or a computer system; (xii) manipulation in seating arrangements, allocation of dates and shifts for the candidates tofacilitate adopting unfair means in examinations; (xiii) threatening the life, liberty or wrongfully restraining persons associated with the publicexamination authority or the service provider or any authorised agency of the Government; orobstructing the conduct of a public examination; (xiv) creation of fake website to cheat or for monetary gain; and (xv) conduct of fake examination, issuance of fake admit cards or offer letters to cheat or formonetary gain.

No person or group of persons or institutions shall collude orconspire to facilitate indulgence in any such unfair means.

(1) No person, who is not entrusted or engagedwith the work pertaining to the public examination or conduct of public examination or who is not acandidate, shall enter the premises of the examination centre, with intent to disrupt the conduct of thepublic examination. (2) No person authorised, engaged or entrusted with the duties to conduct public examinationshall, before the time fixed for opening and distribution of question papers–– (a) open, leak or possess or access or solve or seek assistance to solve such question paper or anyportion or a copy thereof in unauthorised manner for monetary or wrongful gain; (b) give any confidential information or promise to give such confidential information to anyperson, where such confidential information is related to or in reference to such question paper formonetary or wrongful gain. (3) No person, who is entrusted or engaged with any work pertaining to public examination shall,except where he is authorised in furtherance of his duties so to do, reveal or cause to be revealed ormake known to any other person any information or part thereof which has come to his knowledge forany undue advantage or wrongful gain.