Anti-paper leak bill debated in Lok Sabha, passage expected Wednesday

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, was debated in the Lok Sabha today after being moved by Union Minister Jitendra Singh.

The bill amends the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, introducing seven key changes aimed at strengthening anti-paper-leak provisions.

One of the proposed changes would let state governments and Union Territory administrations designate any Court of Session as a Special Fast Track Court to try offences under the Act.

Such courts would be required to hold proceedings daily, with trials to be completed within three months of the chargesheet being filed.

Singh called the bill a milestone piece of legislation, pointing out that the 2024 Act was the first law of its kind in independent India targeting exam fraud.

The discussion, which ran from the afternoon into the evening, is expected to conclude with the bill’s passage on Wednesday.

The original Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, was enacted after national outrage over the NEET-UG and UGC-NET paper leaks that year, and this amendment marks the first major revision to that law.

The Lok Sabha’s discussion on the bill formed part of a wider day of parliamentary business during the ongoing Monsoon Session, with the Rajya Sabha separately taking up unrelated legislation on the same day.

Government officials have described the amendment as building on recommendations from an expert committee that reviewed gaps in the 2024 law following continued instances of examination malpractice across states.

The debate in the Lok Sabha took place against the backdrop of continuing protests and disruptions in Parliament over the NEET-UG paper leak controversy, which had dominated much of the Monsoon Session’s proceedings in the preceding days.

The 2024 Act that the current bill seeks to amend had itself been introduced following a series of high-profile examination paper leaks that affected recruitment and entrance tests across multiple states and central agencies.

(Image: Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs / PIB (GODL-India))