Lok Sabha passes anti-paper leak Amendment Bill amid Opposition din

Lok Sabha passes tougher anti-paper leak Bill as government and Opposition clash over student protests and allegations of police excesses

The Lok Sabha (LS) on Wednesday passed a Bill to amend the two-year-old anti-paper leak law to make its penal provisions more stringent. The House passed the Bill amid sloganeering by the Opposition as the government insisted that no bullets were fired during the police action against protesters last week. 

Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh, who piloted the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill-2026, said the proposed amendments indicate that the government is open to learning from experience. He said the rate of suicides related to paper leaks has also reduced over the last few years. 

Singh introduced the Bill in the Lok Sabha on July 27, two days after the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) called off its protest on irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet) after Dharmendra Pradhan quit as the country’s education minister. 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. 

In his speech, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi alleged that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had authorised police excesses and firing against student protesters. In a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its core support base, Gandhi said a student told him that there exist three categories of people: The first being students, the second being those who think they know everything and pretend to be god, and the third being the “andhabhakt” who believe the second category is god. 

Gandhi claimed that the home minister is not present in the LS because he is “scared”. Treasury benches objected to his remark. Speaker Om Birla intervened, saying the discussion was not on the home minister and added that Gandhi must provide proof to substantiate his allegations. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju demanded that Gandhi apologise. The House was adjourned twice due to the uproar over Gandhi's remarks, and he could not complete his address. Later, while speaking in the House, Union Minister Singh said no bullet was fired, and only tear gas was used. 

Speaking with reporters in the Parliament House complex later, Gandhi said: “There can be just two options; the Home Minister gave the order for firing (at protesters), the other is that the Home Minister did not know that there will be firing.” “In the first case, he is culpable. In the second case, he is incompetent, there can be no other option.”  

In the LS, Gandhi accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of influencing the education system and shaping what students are taught. “Dharmendra Pradhan never ran the education ministry. The man and organisation that run the ministry is called the RSS. They (students) have to buy this nonsensical history that RSS fantasises about. Pradhan is the symbol. Your real enemy is the RSS. They are the people who want you to be andhbhakts,” Gandhi said and alleged that all universities in the country have a vice chancellor of the RSS. 

 

Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters at Indira Bhawan in the evening, Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack Home Minister Shah and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the “police brutalities”. He also alleged that he was not allowed to speak in LS and he is “silenced” whenever he tries to speak. “I said Shah was responsible for the brutality that was carried out. I was given an assurance that if I apologise, I will be allowed to speak. I will never apologise to the BJP-RSS,” he said. 

In his speech in the Lok Sabha, Jitendra Singh criticised Gandhi, and said the Congress leader lacked knowledge of parliamentary norms and the functioning of the government. Responding to Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi's remarks alleging that on innocent children atrocities and oppression were inflicted, Singh said, “Utmost restraint was exercised, and it was made sure that casualties do not happen”.  

“The first & fundamental point is he should know that when no shots were fired in the first place, the question of giving an order does not arise at all,” he said.  

Immediately after the passage of the Bill, LS was adjourned for the day. The Rajya Sabha will now take up the Bill. 

With inputs from PTI