Shimla, Aug. 5 -- Himachal Pradesh government is all set to introduce a new bill to curb the increasing incidents of paper leaks, in the upcoming monsoon session scheduled to be held from August 18 till September 2. With 12 sittings, this will probably be one of the longest monsoon sessions of the hill state with August 21 and 28 fixed for non-official member working days. The session will commence on August 18 at 2 pm and there will be obituary references on the first day. There will be a total of 12 sittings in this monsoon session, with August 21 and 28 fixed for non-official member working days. The last monsoon session in 2024 had a total of 11 sittings and was held between August 27 and September 10. The state government will table the HP Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2025, draft of which has been approved by the state cabinet during the 4-day marathon cabinet meetings held recently. Under the new proposed legislation there will be a provision of punishment up to three years for those who sell, buy or get the paper copied. This step is being considered very important in terms of protecting the future of the youth. The jail term can be extended to five years with fine up to Rs.10 lakh. "The service provider shall also be liable to be punished with imposition of fine of Rs.1 crore and proportionate cost of examination shall be recovered from such service providers and he shall be barred from being assigned with any responsibility of the conduct of any public examination for period of four years," shared a senior government official requesting anonymity. In the proposed legislation if it is established during the investigation that the offence of cheating, paperleak has been committed "with the consent or connivance of any director, senior management or the persons in-charge of the service provider firm, he shall be liable for imprisonment for a term not less than 3 years but which may extend to 10 years and with fine of Rs.1 crore." The need of the new legislation arose after the recent incidents of alleged paper leaks, including in the police requirement exams. In June this year, Kangra police had busted a cheating racket during the Himachal Pradesh Police Constable recruitment examination by promising to help them pass the examination in exchange for money. The exam, conducted by the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission, was held across the state on June 15. A case was registered at Palampur police station under Sections 318(4) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Even in 2022 the police recruitment were marred with paper leak case in which CBI in March 2024 had filed two chargesheets against 88 accused in on-going investigation of cases related to leakage of question papers of HP Police Constable Recruitment Exam 2022 held in March 2022. Even in 2019 illegal bluetooth device usage incident was reported during recruitment....