India's parliament has cleared a bill to update the country's anti-paper leak law by introducing tougher penalties to for cheating and leaking questions in public examinations.
The move comes after youth-led protests — led by India's Cockroach movement — gripped the nation and forced the country's education minister to quit over repeated alleged irregularities in major exams.
Rajya Sabha — the upper house of the Indian parliament — passed the The Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 late Thursday evening, a day after it was cleared by the lower house or the Lok Sabha.
The bill now needs the assent of President Droupadi Murmu before it can become law.
"This is an issue in which every parent, every family, and indeed every citizen of this country has a stake, because these young children are our greatest investment," Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh, who was among the government's negotiators with the student protesters, told the Rajya Sabha.
