Penalty for creating rumours on question leak in the offing: Nahid

The government will soon enact laws providing for imprisonment and fines for those spreading ‘circulating rumours to ‘create confusions’ over question paper leaks, says education minister Nurul Islam Nahid.

He said the existing law is being amended to include provisions for prison sentence, fine and confiscation of property of offenders.

“Mobile courts will be operated to prevent question paper leaks. We will prepare 32 sets of questions for public exams,” Nahid told reporters on Wednesday.

At present, four sets of question papers are made for public exams.

Speaking with reporters after an inter-ministerial meeting, Nahid said the government is effecting major changes in the processes of preparing, printing and distributing question papers.

Under the ‘Public Examinations (Offence) Act’ of 1994, a punishment of four years in prison can be awarded for involvement in leaking papers.  The provision for a ten-year prison term under a 1980 law was later amended.

The government had to take the English second paper test of the HSC exam under Dhaka board twice as the papers had leaked.

It is also alleged that mathematics, chemistry and physics question papers of this year’s HSC exams had been leaked, too.