Section 2. Malpractices in public examinations lead to delays and cancellation of examinations adversely impact

2. Malpractices in public examinations lead to delays and cancellation of examinations adversely impacting the prospects of millions of youth. At present, there is no specific substantive law to deal with unfair means adopted or offences committed by various entities involved in the conduct of public examinations by the Central Government and its agencies. Therefore, it is imperative that elements that exploit vulnerabilities of examination system are identified and effectively dealt with by a comprehensive Central legislation. 2. Definitions .—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-- (a) "candidate" means a person who has been granted permission by the public examination authority to appear in public examination and includes a person authorised to act as a scribe on his behalf in the public examination; (b) "communication device" shall have the same meaning assigned to it in clause (ha) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000); (c) "competent authority" shall mean the Ministry or a Department of the Central Government administratively concerned with the public examination authority; (d) "computer network", "computer resource" and "computer system" shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in clauses (j), (k) and (l) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000); (e) "conduct of public examination" shall include all the procedures, processes and activities, as may be prescribed, for being adopted for the conduct of public examination; (f) "institution" means any agency, organisation, body, association of persons, business entity, company, partnership or single proprietorship firm, by whatever name it may be called, which is other than the public examination authority and the service provider engaged by such authority. Explanation .—For the purposes of this clause, it is clarified that "company" includes a company as defined in clause (20) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2003); or a limited liability partnership firm as defined in clause (n) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 (7 of 2009); (g)"notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette and the expression "notify" shall be construed accordingly; (h) "organised crime" means an unlawful activity committed by a person or a group of persons indulging in unfair means in collusion and conspiracy to pursue or promote a shared interest for wrongful gain in respect of a public examination; (i) "person associated with a service provider" means a person who performs services for or on behalf of such service provider irrespective of whether such person is an employee or an agent or a subsidiary of such service provider, as the case may be; (j) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;