By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha has decided to enact a new Law with provision of strong punishment for those who found involved in any type of unfair means in conduct of recruitment examinations and entrance tests. This decision was taken during a State Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday.
Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja said that the Odisha Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 to be framed in order to prevent various forms of unfair means such as impersonation, cheating, and disrupting the examination process, leakage of information related to an exam before the scheduled time, unauthorized entry into exam halls etc. and to maintain the integrity of public exams conducted by different departments.
The proposed law will be applicable for all public exams conducted by the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC), Odisha Staff Selection Commission, Odisha Subordinate Staff Selection Commission, Service Selection Board, Odisha Police Selection Board, State Selection Board constituted under the Odisha Education (Selection Board for the State)Rules, 1992, Odisha Joint Entrance Examination, regulated by the Odisha Professional Educational Institution (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2007, Departments of the State Government and their attached and subordinate offices for recruitment of staff, Selection agencies/committees engaged or constituted by the State Government, and all such other authority as may be notified by the State Government from time to time.
All offences under this Act, shall be cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable. Any person or persons resorting to unfair means and offences, shall be punished with imprisonment ranging three to five years and with fine up to Rs 10 lakhs, he said. The service provider shall also be liable to be punished with imposition of a fine up to Rs1 crore and proportionate cost of examination shall also be recovered from such service provider, he informed. Further, in case of default of payment of fine, an additional punishment of imprisonment shall be imposed, as per the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, Ahuja said.
