The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 that has provision for up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 1 crore for malpractices and organized cheating in government recruitment exams was notified by the Union government and came into effect from June 21, 2024. The Bill had received assent from the President of India on the 13th February 2024. The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 mentions punishments for ”leakage of question paper or Correct Answer key”, ”directly or indirectly assisting the candidate in any manner unauthorisedly in the public examination” and ”tampering with the computer network or a computer resource or a computer system” as offences done by a person, group of persons or institutions.
Besides these, ”creation of fake website to cheat or for monetary gain”, ”conduct of fake examination, issuance of fake admit cards or offer letters to cheat or for monetary gain” and ”manipulation in seating arrangements, allocation of dates and shifts for the candidates to facilitate adopting unfair means in examinations” are also among the offences punishable under the law. ”Any person or persons resorting to unfair means and offences under this Act shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not less than three years but which may extend to five years and with fine up to 10 lakh,” said the Act.
A service provider, engaged by the public examination authority for conduct of examinations, shall also be liable to be punished with imposition of a fine up to 1 crore ”and proportionate cost of examination shall also be recovered” from it, according to the Act. Such service providers shall also be barred from being assigned with any responsibility for the conduct of any public examination for a period of four years. [Extracted, with edits and revisions from ”Act that Punishes Organized Cheating in Government Exams Comes into Effect” published in The Hindu dated 22-06-2024
A service provider, engaged by the public examination authority for conduct of examinations, indirectly helped his family member by giving hint on questions that were supposed to be asked in the examination shall
Correct Answer :
be liable to be punished with imposition of a fine upto 1 crore and the entire cost of conduct of the examination
Solution :
The correct answer is Option 3: be liable to be punished with imposition of a fine upto 1 crore and the entire cost of conduct of the examination.
Step-by-step Explanation:
1. Identify the status of the offender: The question specifies that the person involved is a "service provider, engaged by the public examination authority for conduct of examinations".
2. Identify the offense committed: The service provider "indirectly helped his family member by giving hint on questions that were supposed to be asked in the examination", which constitutes an offense under unfair means/malpractice according to the Act.
3. Analyze the provisions of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 from the passage:
According to the provided text:
"A service provider, engaged by the public examination authority for conduct of examinations, shall also be liable to be punished with imposition of a fine up to 1 crore ”and proportionate cost of examination shall also be recovered” from it, according to the Act."
4. Evaluate the Options:
Option 3 correctly incorporates both components of punishment specified for a service provider under the Act: imposition of a fine up to 1 crore along with the recovery of the cost/proportionate cost of conduct of the examination.
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