Bhubaneswar, March 14: The next time you think of adopting any unfair means in examinations, be careful, you might invite trouble for yourself with the state government amending its rules of conducting examination after 28 years.

The rules, which will now be called, Odisha Conduct of Examination (Amendment) Act, 2016, will apply to candidates as well as the examiners or invigilators and the examination centres. Earlier, the state was following the Orissa Conduct of Examination Act, 1988.

According to the new regulations, the candidate uses or attempt to use any unfair means at the examination centres will be punishable with imprisonment for three months or with a fine up to Rs 3,000. The earlier rules haven't had any punishment or fine for similar activities of any candidates. Similarly, if any examination staff member or invigilator tries to help the candidate in using unfair means, neglects duty while carrying question papers or answer books or manipulates data or mark sheets, they will be punished with an imprisonment of up to five years with a fine up to Rs 1 lakh. Earlier, regulation had only three months of imprisonment for the violation.

"After consultation with various stakeholders, we had amended the regulation for smooth conduct of examinations. The notification for the act was published in the Odisha Gazette on March 2. We have also intimated all the authorities, including the director of higher education, colleges, universities, to implement the act in spirit," said a higher education department official. The new regulations further have the provision of punishment for the superintendent or the head of the educational institutions, where candidates are found doing mass copies or any other such unfair activities with the help of the examination staff members. The violators here would be fined, and they would have to pay an amount to the examination body for holding re-examinations or have one-year imprisonment.

"This is a good move of the state government to amend the examination rules with such stringent provision of punishment. The earlier rules were hollow and since that didn't had any major punishments. I hope that the new regulation would help conduct the examinations in a smooth and fair manner," said Krushna Chandra Rai, a principal of a city-based private college.