MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal urges Amit Shah to order Central probe into 11 examination paper leaks in Punjab
Babushahi Bureau
Chandigarh, July 29, 2026 – Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to order a central probe into the eleven cases of examination paper leaks in Punjab to unmask the multi-crore scam and ensure justice to five lakh students who had been wronged by the repeated paper leaks.
In a statement here, the Bathinda MP said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government did not have any interest in probing the paper leaks as this could result in indicting their own ministers. “It is therefore absolutely necessary to punish the perpetrators of this crime as they have played with the future of an entire generation”.
Mrs Harsimrat Badal said Punjabis were perturbed that the AAP government did not have any intention to fix accountability for the paper leaks. “Even though serious lapses have been found in the functioning of the Education department which conducted the papers, the Health department which conducted the Pharmacy Officers paper and a nodal paper conducting authority – the Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board – no action has been taken against those at their helm. Neither have education minister Harjot Bains and health minister Balbir Singh been sacked nor has the chief minister owned moral responsibility as the minister incharge of the Subordinate Services Selection Board”.
The SAD leader said with the very sanctity of the examination system being eroded people had lost faith in the ability of the AAP government to conduct recruitment examinations. She said the paper leaks and irregularities had also reached the high court which had also stepped in to stay the recruitment process in some cases, including the Excise Inspectors examination.
Mrs Badal informed the home minister that instead of taking strict action in the paper leak cases, the AAP government had initiated a cover up exercise and was asserting that no paper leak had occurred in the State. “This despite chief minister Bhagwant Mann tweeting on March 13, 2023 and announcing that the Punjab State Teacher Eligibility Test (PSTET) paper had been leaked. Recently the government has admitted there were grave irregularities in the conduct of the Pharmacy Officers examination in which an organized mafia took Rs 13 lakh each from unscrupulous persons and used Bluetooth devices to dictate the paper to them but refused short of admitting that the paper was leaked. The truth is that even this paper was leaked from inside examination centers by posting pliable staff as part of a plan to subvert the entire examination in favour of chosen candidates”.
The MP disclosed that there had been 11 major paper leak cases in the last four years. She said there were instances where irregularities had been detected in the examinations, including students passing the examination in large numbers from particular centers besides bungling in awarding interview marks. “The major cases include the Naib Tehsildar paper leak affecting 42,000 students, the TET paper leak affecting one lakh students, the PSEB class twelve English paper affecting 2.5 lakh students, the Agriculture Development Officers paper affecting 4,100 students and the PSSSB Group B Officers paper affecting one lakh students”.
Mrs Badal said the matter had become very sensitive as the State government was conducting sham inquiries into the paper leaks. “Even though the State Vigilance had registered a case in the December 2025 Excise Inspectors paper leak, no action has been taken in the matter till now. Similarly in the Pharmacy Officers paper leak case the examination has still not been scrapped”, she asserted.
Earlier the MP raised the issue of paper leaks in Punjab in parliament also. Speaking on the issue late yesterday evening, Mrs Badal said though the amendment bill to check paper leaks was welcome it should have been presented only after discussions with all stakeholders, including students. She also condemned the brutality meted out to protesting students in Delhi besides condemning efforts by a Delhi BJP minister to stop students from assessing Sri Bangla Sahib gurudwara during the Jantar Mantar protests. She also exposed Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia for claiming there was no paper leak in Punjab in the last four years by reading out a tweet released by chief minister Bhagwant Mann on March 13, 2023 admitting that the Punjab State Teacher Eligibility Test paper had been leaked. EOM