Over 1,200 cases of cheating in govt recruitment tests

Over 1,200 cases of use of unfair means in recruitment tests for government jobs conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Staff Selection Commission (SSC) have been reported in past three years, government informed Lok Sabha today.
Of the total of 1,215 cases, a highest of 1,173 were in tests conducted by the SSC and the remaining 42 cases were in exams organised by UPSC, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said in a written reply.
The UPSC conducts civil services examination annually in three stages -- preliminary, mains and interview -- to select candidates for prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others. It also conducts other direct recruitment exams.

Whereas the SSC, which is one of the largest recruiting agencies in the country, is mandated to conduct eight exams to select thousands of candidates for government jobs.
There were 240 incidents of unfair means were reported last year as against 528 in 2014 and 400 in 2013 in the exams conducted by the SSC, the Minister said.
There were 13 cases of cheating in exams conducted by the UPSC during 2015-16 as against nine incidents in 2014-15 and 15 in 2013-14, he said.

Both the UPSC and SSC have reported five such cases so far this year, Singh said.

"UPSC has informed that it takes serious note of the reported cases of malpractices adopted by the candidates and after following due process imposes penalties like cancellation of candidature, debarment for a particular period or permanent debarment on the offending candidates," he said.
SSC, in order to counter the menace of adoption of unfair practises and to safeguard the interest of genuine candidates, is gradually moving towards computer-based examination mode, the Minister said.