Lok Sabha passes stricter anti-paper leak Bill

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday approved a Bill to amend the anti-paper leak law with stricter punishment of up to 10 years’ jail and a Rs 50 lakh fine, amid sloganeering by opposition parties.

The Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, with stricter punishment, was introduced in the House by Union Minister Jitendra Singh on July 27, days after large-scale student protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party forced Dharmendra Pradhan to resign as the education minister.

Speaking in Lok Sabha, Singh said the government acted swiftly in the NEET paper leak case, and as many as 52 FIRs have been lodged since the anti-paper leak law came into force in 2024.

The amendment Bill indicates that the government was open to learning from experience, he said, noting that the rate of suicide related to paper leaks had also reduced over the last few years. He criticised Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, stating that he lacked knowledge of parliamentary norms and the functioning of the government. Immediately after the passage of the Bill, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.

Earlier, High drama unfolded in the Lok Sabha as Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on Union Home Minister Amit Shah triggered a massive verbal confrontation. Participating in the discussion on the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, Gandhi alleged that the Home Minister ordered firing on the protesting students. He even described him as “so called Home Minister”.

This remark sparked fierce protest from the Treasury benches leading to disruption in the House.  As Gandhi levelled the charge, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju objected to the statement made by the LoP in the House. He challenged Gandhi to show an order where the Home Minister has given such an instruction. He accused Rahul Gandhi of making baseless and misleading allegations on the floor of the House.

Meanwhile, Gandhi kept accusing Home Minister further saying that “He does not even have courage to come and sit in the Parliament”.  He further alleged that the education system had completely been captured by the RSS.

He further alleged that the RSS controls the Ministry of Education and suppresses independent thinking among students. “The students are not allowed to be students in India. They are not allowed to say what they want or ask questions. They are made to buy the history the RSS sells,” he claimed.

Gandhi further alleged that “every major educational institution in India has an RSS worker heading it” and claimed that “every single university in India has a vice chancellor from the RSS.” Shifting focus to former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Gandhi said the minister was merely a “symbol,” while claiming that the  “real enemy is the RSS.”

He alleged that the organisation wanted students to become “andh-bhakts” rather than independent thinkers. Referring to recent student protests, Gandhi praised the students for standing up despite pressure from the ruling establishment. “The parents of these children did not have the courage to face the BJP-RSS; yet the children stood there and faced whatever was thrown at them,” he said.

Gandhi said he was “very excited” and “reassured” by the student protests over the NEET paper leak issue and described them as an expression of the youth. He said, “I was very excited, reassured by what the future of this country did on our streets. This was not anger, not violence, not hatred; this was an expression, deep expressions of the youth of this country, of the future generation of this country.”

“All parties should respect this expression, including my friends in the BJP. If my friends in the BJP were to go and ask their own children about what their brothers and sisters were doing, they would find agreement among their own children. There is nothing wrong with what happened, and every Indian should be proud,” he said.

Gandhi said a conversation with a group of students gave him perspective on how young people view education and knowledge. “A good starting point would be a conversation I had with some students, young girls, which gave me a very interesting perspective,” he said. Recalling the interaction, Gandhi said he asked a student what it meant to be a student.

“The question I asked the girl was that you said you were a student — what does that mean? Does it mean you study in a college, in a school, you read books? She said a student is someone who has an open mind (and) an open heart.

“A student is someone who accepts that he does not know everything. Whatever he knows will be superseded by new knowledge. He knows the universe is dynamic. He also understands that knowledge is constantly changing. The most important quality, she said, that a student has is humility,” he said. Gandhi said the student also described another category of people who believed they knew everything.

“They are absolutely convinced that they know everything. They believe that the universe is static and they believe that knowledge emerges from inside them. They are arrogant. They don’t listen, they don’t respect other people’s truth,” the leader of opposition (LoP) said and used a word, which was objected to as “unparliamentary” by the Chair. The remark triggered an uproar in the House, with Speaker Birla asking Gandhi to focus on the debate.

Rijiju also objected to the use of the “unparliamentary” word. Gandhi said he was attributing the term to a student and was not referring to any member of the House. Birla said unparliamentary expressions would be expunged from the proceedings.

Gandhi further said the student told him that the hallmark of a student was that they “wear the truth on their chest”, while the other category needed to create an image. “And as that image is not true because … is trying to pretend he is God, he has to create this image,” he said.

“I asked about the third category — andhbhakt. He is absolutely convinced that … is God,” Gandhi said. He said the framework came from an 18-year-old student and argued that the protests, though centred around examinations, reflected wider concerns about the education system.