By Benita Srivastava
Exam paper leaks have become a national wound, a recurring scandal in India’s education and recruitment ecosystem. Nationwide, entrance exams, public service recruitment papers, have all been hit in recent years. Each leak is a criminal episode for it is a theft of opportunity from honest hard- working and meritorious students.
A high-profile episode of how paper leaks play out is the controversy around NEET UG Exam 2024 where the arrests show that the organised groups and insiders can circulate solved papers in advance. The probe identified hundreds of applicants who benefited directly. This group of students got their scores and rankings unfairly inflated pushing genuinely meritorious students down the order. The deserving lost government seats to those who bought them. The MCI the NTA were apprised of the episode, still the results were not annulled. The episode shows exactly how deep the rot is. The investigating agency admitted that at least 100 candidates got the solved papers beforehand, each allegedly having paid Rs 30 to 40 lakhs. But here lies the obvious question – if someone spends such a huge sum would they keep the papers only to themselves? Even a fool can understand the simple business logic – they would try to resell or share it to recover the money they have spent. Even if not openly they would at least circulate among trusted networks. The oversight is deliberately weak. The authorities prefer to pretend that the damage is limited because acknowledging the wider spread would mean the entire exam process is compromised. By refusing to annul exams, the system effectively legitimises fraud and tells honest students that their years of toil count for nothing. This oversight on part of the authorities looks like wilful blindness protecting vested interests. It makes us ponder if there is a collusion between authorities and Leak rackets that is why punishing the offenders or cancelling exams would mean that their failures and their involvement would be exposed.
The most chilling part is not the crime itself but the pattern. Every time the script is familiar in the case of paper leaks – outrage, followed by arrests, a commission of inquiry, grand statements issued by politicians and, in a short time, the scandal disappears from the headlines. Why does this keep happening? Because paper leaks are booming business industries. They thrive on the blessings of the insiders, officials who look the other way, middlemen who grease the system and politicians who prefer a defeated youth to an empowered one.
The recent Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UKSSSC) paper leak has once again exposed the rot in a recruitment system. What was supposed to be a fair gateway to secure employment for thousands of aspirants has been reduced to a dirty spectacle of manipulation, greed and betrayal.
On 21 September 2025, as candidates sat in the examination halls across the state, three pages of the question paper were quietly photographed and circulated. The main accused Khalid Malik had already conducted a survey of the centre, sneaked in a mobile phone and exploited the fact that some exam rooms had no mobile jammers and no CCTV coverage. He was not alone in the game – his family members and even a professor were involved in the racket. Sources say the paper was sold for somewhere between Rs 12 to 15 lakhs per copy. This is not just a law-and-order failure, it is a moral collapse. The government has set up a Special Investigation Team under the supervision of a retired High Court judge. Aspirants are no longer impressed by the steps taken by the government. Now they are demanding a CBI probe because their faith in local agencies is fast diminishing.
Practical remedies for exam paper leaks
Transparent audit and strict timeline can plug the leaks because without accountability every exam
turns into an auction.
Independent probes are the only antidotes to leaks. When the system investigates itself, it is more like letting the thief write the FIR.
Stronger centre security CCTV, signal jammers, bags and other physical checks, randomised seating can go a long way in ensuring fair play. Punishing the brokers, coaching centres and buyers of leaked papers can also help in curbing this crime.
The entire exam system must be entrusted to retired army personnel, who could team up with trained civilian examination experts. This can reassure the candidates that exam security is being taken seriously.
Weak deterrence and slow investigation – If detection, prosecution and punishment are slow or rare, it will encourage more scams. Slow justice is an encouragement in disguise. Every day of delay becomes a green light for the next leak and thereby the credibility of the entire examination system erodes.
What makes the crime worse is the mockery of accountability. The small fry are paraded before cameras, while the big sharks swim free in the polluted water of politics and power. Rarely do we see the net cast wide enough to catch those who profit from this betrayal.
The Uttarakhand paper leak is more of a warning than just a scam. It is a clarion call for the government to make the examination system transparent, secure and foolproof and the time to act is now.
(Benita Srivastava is MA (Gold Medalist), BEd, Educationist and Certified Author for Council for The Indian School Certificate Examination.)
