Cabinet Clears Tougher Paper Leak Bill, Rs 10 Crore Fine

The Union Cabinet approved a draft bill on Friday to sharpen penalties for examination paper leaks, proposing a maximum fine of Rs 10 crore and up to 10 years in prison for those running organised leak networks. The bill amends The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 and is expected to come before Parliament as early as Monday.

The move follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement in a late-night video message on Thursday, where he said legislation with strong provisions against paper leaks would be introduced in Parliament the following week. The Cabinet, chaired by Modi at the Parliament House complex, approved the draft the next morning.

What the bill changes

Under the current law, individuals face three to five years in prison for involvement in paper leaks. Organised offenders, meaning groups acting together for money, face five to 10 years in prison and a minimum fine of Rs 1 crore. The amended bill raises the floor for individuals to a minimum of five years and lifts the ceiling for organised offences to 10 years with a maximum fine of Rs 10 crore, ten times the existing cap. Candidates appearing in exams are explicitly protected from the bill's penal provisions, meaning the law targets those who run and supply leak networks, not students who may have received leaked material.

The examinations covered under the existing law include major recruitment tests like those run by the Union Public Service Commission and the Staff Selection Commission, and entrance tests such as NEET, JEE, and CUET. Those frameworks remain in scope under the amendment.

Why this is happening now

The bill is a direct response to sustained political pressure following the NEET-UG paper leak in May, which triggered student protests across the country. The Cockroach Janta Party, a student-led protest group, marched to Parliament on July 20 demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, compensation of Rs 1 crore to families of students who died by suicide after the leak, and broader reforms in the examination system.

According to official sources, the Cabinet is standing firmly behind Pradhan, and the government has no plans to accept the demand for his removal. The opposition is also pressing for a prime ministerial apology over alleged police action against protesters during the July 20 march, a demand the government has not addressed publicly.

The National Testing Agency, which administers NEET-UG for medical admissions, is separately under review. Official sources said the government is working through reform issues within NTA and expects to resolve them within one to two months.

The Public Examinations Act passed in 2024 was the first dedicated national law against exam fraud in India's recent history. Despite an education policy under former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that had called for such legislation, no Congress-led government enacted a law in this area. The current amendment signals that the government views the 2024 framework as insufficient given the scale and organisation of recent leak operations.

For students preparing for competitive exams, the tougher penalties are intended to raise the cost and risk for operators who run leak rings. Whether that translates to fewer leaks will depend heavily on enforcement capacity, NTA reforms, and how the bill defines and investigates organised networks. Parliament's handling of the bill next week, and whether opposition parties use it to press further on NTA accountability, will be the immediate thing to watch.