Jaipur, Feb 24 In the midst of the controversy over the REET (Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teacher) paper leak, the Rajasthan government on Thursday tabled the Rajasthan Public Examination (Measures for Prevention of Unfair Means in Recruitment) Bill, 2022 in the state Assembly.
The Bill aims to provide effective measures to prevent and curb offences of leakage of question papers.
It also aims to check the use of unfair means at public examinations for the purpose of recruitment to any post under the state government, including autonomous bodies, authorities, boards or corporations, and to provide for designated courts for the trial of such offences and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, said Rajendra Yadav, Minister of State for Education.
The new law will work as a deterrent against the rising trend of unfair means in public examinations and also work as a deterrent for the examinees and criminal masterminds who resort to such tactics.
It has strict provisions of punishment of up to 10 years and penalties in the form of fines up to Rs 10 crore as well as attachment/confiscation of property.
A designated court for the trial of such offences has been provisioned in the Bill.
In any examination, if a candidate copies or is found guilty of buying paper from the paper leak gang, there is a provision of imprisonment of three years and a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.
If the examinee is a member of the copying gang, his punishment and fine will also be the same as the rest of the gang. An examinee who has been convicted of an offence under the provision of this Act shall be debarred from taking any public examination for a period of two years.
Paper leak and copying in all types of examinations will be treated as a cognisable and non-bailable offence. Only an officer of Additional SP level will be able to check copying and paper leaks in examinations; a police officer below this rank will not be able to investigate these cases, said the Bill.
It further added, "All offences specified under this Act shall be cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable. The state government may, by notification in the official gazette, designate as many courts of sessions in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court as it may be necessary to try offences punishable under this Act."
It needs to be mentioned here that the Ashok Gehlot government sacked Board of Secondary Education Chairman D.P. Jaroli after he was caught in the REET exam paper leak case.
A huge political controversy was triggered in this regard.
Many arrests are being made in the paper leak case. The Chief Minister on Wednesday announced the formation of an anti-cheating cell in the investigating agency, SOG.
The Yogi Adityanath government in UP and the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana have already passed Bills with strict provisions against the crime of copying.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor