The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions on June 23, 2024, issued the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Rules, 2024.
This shall come into force on June 24, 2024.
The following has been stated namely: -
• It states that the engagement of services of other government agencies by public examination authority shall exempt them from being classified as service providers; premises of government entities shall be similarly exempted, with staff subject to relevant legal provisions for misconduct.
• It states that the Computer Based Test shall involve candidate registration, centre allocation, admit card issuance, question paper distribution at exam centres, evaluation, and final recommendations, where distribution shall involve downloading from the main server to the local server and digitally transferring to authorized candidate computers at centres.
• It states that the public examination authority shall engage serving or retired employees of Central Government, State Government, Public Sector Undertakings, Public Sector Banks, Government Universities, autonomous bodies, and other Government Organizations as Centre Coordinators or for other public examination duties.
• It states that incidents of unfair means or offenses during public examinations shall require the venue-in-charge to report findings to the Regional Officer via the Centre Coordinator, and if warranted, the Regional Officer shall initiate a First Information Report based on the review of the report concerning the involvement of lower-level service provider personnel.
• It states that the Public examination authority shall evaluate the actions of deputed public servants, forming a committee headed by a Joint Secretary or equivalent, including senior officer and expert, to assess conduct under section 14 of the Act, submitting findings for necessary action.
• It states that every public examination authority shall set up a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of provisions of the Act.
[Notification no. - G.S.R. 342(E)]
