The Lok Sabha on Tuesday began debate on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, days after student and youth protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party over the NEET-UG paper leak ended with the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The bill is among the reforms promised by the government to make punishments related to examination paper leaks more stringent.
The bill, introduced in the House on Monday, amends the two-year-old law on examination malpractices to raise prison terms, hike fines, and place time limits on both investigations and trials.
Union minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh, moving the bill for consideration, called it “a reaffirmation of the government’s commitment to safeguard the welfare of students and youth” and said it was being brought “to make the law more stringent”.
The existing legislation, the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, was passed by Parliament in February 2024 and brought into force that June, after a run of paper leaks.
It set out 15 heads of offence — from leaking question papers and answer keys to running counterfeit examination websites — and prescribed graded penalties for individuals, for the service providers hired to organise the tests, and for their senior officials.
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Every offence was made cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable. Candidates were kept outside the Act’s scope, and the amendment does not change that.
The 2026 bill raises punishments at every rung. For an individual convicted of using unfair means, the minimum jail term rises from three years to five, the maximum from five to 10, and the fine ceiling from ₹10 lakh to ₹50 lakh.
Service providers face a fine of ₹5 crore in place of ₹1 crore, and an eight-year debarment from public examination work rather than four earlier.
For organised crime — coordinated attempts by individuals, groups or institutions to game a public examination — the minimum sentence moves from five years to seven, with the fine set at ₹10 crore.
The bill also puts each stage of the process on a clock.
Two new sections — 12A and 12B — cap investigations at two months from the date the central government refers a case, whether the probe is run by a central agency or by a special task force, a new investigative route the amendment creates.
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Fast-track courts, absent from the 2024 law, are given statutory backing: each state and Union territory must designate a court of session, in consultation with the concerned high court, to try offences under the Act.
Proceedings will run on a day-to-day basis and trials must be completed within three months of the chargesheet being filed. Appeals lie to the high court, where a two-judge bench is to dispose of each within three months of admission “as far as possible”.
The bill’s statement of objects and reasons says the changes are necessary “to facilitate speedy trial and ensure time bound investigations of offences under the said act”, according to a copy of the bill reviewed by HT.
