Section 3 - Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024

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

Chapter II

Unfair Means and Offences

3. Unfair means.-

The unfair means relating to the conduct of a public examination shall include any act or omission done or caused to be done by any person or group of persons or institutions, and include 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 Recognition response sheet without authority;

(iv) providing solution to one or more questions by any unauthorised person during a public examination;

(v) directly or indirectly assisting the candidate in any manner unauthorisedly in the public examination;

(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 of a public examination on its own or through its agency;

(ix) tampering with any document necessary for short-listing of candidates or finalising the merit or rank of a candidate in a public examination;

(x) deliberate violation of security measures to facilitate unfair means in conduct of a public examination;

(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 to facilitate adopting unfair means in examinations;

(xiii) threatening the life, liberty or wrongfully restraining persons associated with the public examination authority or the service provider or any authorised agency of the Government; or obstructing 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 for monetary gain.