The Supreme Court has hit the brakes on a high-stakes legal bid to strip paper leak conspirators of their wealth. A bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe postponed the hearing for six weeks on Friday, citing the need for complete pleadings from all respondents.
The move comes as Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, informed the court that all state governments have been impleaded as parties. "All of us will have to file pleadings. So let pleadings be complete," Bhati told the bench, prompting the court to demand counter-affidavits from the respondents before resuming the matter.
The petition, filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay through counsel Ashwani Kumar Dubey, argues that repeated failures by authorities to prosecute paper leaks violate students' fundamental rights under Articles 14, 16, 19, and 21. The plea specifically requests the invocation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the Prevention of Corruption Act to assess and seize both movable and immovable property of perpetrators and their family members.
Upadhyay dropped one of his earlier prayers during the August 18 hearing, acknowledging that the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, now addresses time-bound trials. However, the core demand remains: sentences for paper leaks must be consecutive, not concurrent, to serve as a deterrent. The petition also threatens to direct the Law Commission to study international practices on paper leaks within three months if the court fails to act.
The legal fight is grounded in the grim reality of exam fraud, which the petitioner links to student suicides, mental trauma, and lost livelihoods. With the bench expecting full responses from the Centre and states, the next hearing will determine whether Indian law will finally treat exam fraud as a financial crime warranting asset forfeiture.