Dec. 18: The state JEE candidates from next year will have to write their papers with ballpoint pens to be supplied by the test authorities, the move prompted by rampant use of digital pens as cheating tools.

A technical committee set up by the JEE board to suggest ways to curb cheating approved the measure last month, a board official said. The academic committee of the board then vetted the proposal.

The outgoing chairman of the board, Sajal Dasgupta, had set up the technical committee in October.

Next year's JEE will be held on April 22 and 23.

Metro had on November 22 reported about the board's plan to make it mandatory for the examinees to write their papers with ballpoint pens to be supplied by the authorities to prevent cheating.

A board member explained how a digital pen, a Bluetooth-enabled device which can also scan documents, could be used as a cheating tool. "A student can scan the question paper with a digital pen and send the digitised version to a person outside the hall through Bluetooth," the member said.

"The answers are dictated to the student through a radio frequency transmitter or cell phone. The student receives the answers through earplugs, which has an antenna of the size of a strand of hair."

Although phones are not allowed in exam halls, students smuggle them in. "We cannot frisk candidates, so they can smuggle in cheating tools hidden in shoes or somewhere else," the member said.

The CBSE, which conducts the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to MBBS courses across the country, has announced that from next year the candidates would have to write the exams with ballpoint pens provided by it.