Punjab Minister Faces Resignation Demands Over Exam Paper Leaks
After Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union Education Minister last week over the NEET paper leak controversy, the Opposition parties in Punjab are demanding the resignation of the state’s School and Higher Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains . The demand for Bains’ resignation, and other Punjab ministers under whose departments the controversial exams were held, was raised by the Opposition parties after senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia said at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi: “If any paper leak happens in Punjab, we will immediately sack the minister.” The Opposition parties, which include the Congress, the BJP, and the Shiromani Akali Dal, have alleged that there were at least six paper leaks and malpractices in Punjab since the AAP came to power in 2022, including a pharmacy officers’ recruitment exam held recently. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann , in his government’s defence, has maintained that “not a single paper leak” has happened in the state in the past four and a half years. The Opposition, while accusing Mann of “lying through his teeth”, has pointed to six such alleged incidents. Here’s what happened in those six incidents and how the AAP government had responded to them at the time. An exam for the recruitment of 454 pharmacy officers under the Department of Health and Family Welfare was held on July 19. It was organised by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, and nearly 7,000 candidates appeared at different centres across Punjab. The same day, the Punjab Police said in a statement that a massive “inter-state cheating racket” was busted during the exam, and some candidates were held with a hidden pen camera inside the exam hall in Ferozepur. They allegedly photographed the question paper, sent images to their accomplice operating from Haryana’s Bhiwani, who further forwarded the question paper to his other accomplices in Faridkot. The accused then dictated the answers in real-time to the candidates sitting inside the hall via wireless Bluetooth equipment, said Faridkot Range police in a statement. The racket’s mastermind was identified as Gurmeet Singh, an employee of Sant Kabir Polytechnic College, Fazilka. Police had detained 35 people including 28 candidates and 7 operatives (from Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan). The Punjab and Haryana High Court in its order on July 28 said that the “ further selection process would be subject to the outcome of the present writ petition ” after some aspirants moved court demanding quashing or cancellation of the exam, claiming that it was “vitiated in its entirety”. The AAP government, including Mann and Bains, have maintained that it was not a “paper leak” but a “cheating racket” which was preempted. Bains has also clarified that the pharmacy exam was under the health minister’s purview, not education. PSSSB Group B officers exam (2025) The exam for 408 posts of Group B officers — such as naib tehsildars, senior assistants, treasury officers, etc. — was conducted by the Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board (PSSSB) on December 21, 2025, in which over one lakh candidates appeared. In a peculiar turn of events, however, at least 22 of 100 toppers emerged from Bathinda district alone, including two or more from the same family. This prompted the PSSSB to ask the Vigilance Bureau to probe paper leak allegations. Aspirants alleged that siblings, husband-wife, and cousins were among the toppers and top positions were held by a handful of families. The Vigilance Bureau initiated a probe into the paper leak which is still ongoing. Candidates at an exam centre in Bathinda flagged that several distributed question papers contained corrections made with fluid whitener, generating severe suspicion of pre-exam tampering. Even as it has been over six months since results were declared for the exam, the recruitments remain frozen due to the pending vigilance probe. ADO exam (2024) Conducted by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), the recruitment exam for 200 vacant posts of Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs) was held on June 30, 2024, with at least 4,100 aspirants appearing for it. This came under the scanner when several aspirants alleged that the question paper was leaked. Days before the exam, some aspirants, in an e-mail to the Chief Minister’s Office, had allegedly given a tip-off that a senior official from the state’s Agriculture Department had accepted a bribe of Rs 32 lakh to leak the paper. Protests were also held in Ludhiana and Jalandhar demanding cancellation of the exam and a high-level probe. The Punjab government denied the allegations. PSTET (2023) The Punjab State Teachers Eligibility Test (PSTET), which constitutes two papers (Papers 1 and 2), was held on March 12, 2023. Over one lakh candidates appeared. But Paper-2 was cancelled by the Punjab government the next day and rescheduled, after it was found that correct answers for at least 50 multiple-choice questions were already highlighted in bold in the question paper. Two professors from Guru Nanak Dev University, which had conducted the exam, were suspended. Both Mann and Bains had acknowledged the irregularities in the exam and said that a probe had been ordered. Paper-2 was re-conducted on April 30, 2023. PSEB Class 12 English exam (2023) The class 12 English board exam under the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), scheduled for February 24, 2023, was cancelled at the last minute after an alleged paper leak. Bains had then marked a high-level probe and said that the paper was cancelled after “direct proofs of paper leak” had emerged in Gurdaspur district. Nearly 2.96 lakh children across the state were affected. Follow our daily newsletter so you never miss anything important. On Wednesday, we answer readers' questions. The exam was rescheduled for March 24 that year. But in another major goof-up on March 24, the originally leaked question papers were again distributed to 185 students in Ludhiana and Ferozepur districts owing to “negligence of on-duty staff”. The 185 appeared for the exam a third time on May 22. Naib tehsildar exam (2022) The PPSC conducted the recruitment exam for 78 vacant posts of naib tehsildar on May 22, 2022, for which at least 42,000 appeared. Following allegations of massive cheating, major irregularities, and rigging, the Department of Revenue and Rehabilitation ordered its cancellation — it was then re-conducted on June 18, 2023. The aspirants had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging that mass cheating took place using wireless devices. After a Punjab Police probe confirmed the same, a re-exam was ordered. The Vigilance Bureau had also started a probe in the matter.
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