The registration of any Higher Secondary examinee caught with a mobile phone inside the examination hall will be cancelled.

A candidate whose registration is cancelled will be barred from writing this year’s examinations. He or she may or may not be allowed to register again depending on the gravity of the offence, said Mahua Das, the president of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education.

The 2019 Higher Secondary (HS) examinations begin on February 26.

All HS examinees must register with the council to be eligible to write the test.

The council would earlier confiscate mobile phones if anyone was found with the device at the main entrance to the exam centre. If a candidate was found carrying a cellphone inside the exam hall, s/he would be barred from writing the day’s examination and would be allowed to resume the next day.

If a candidate failed in a compulsory subject because of the restriction, s/he would be allowed to write the examination the next year.

“This time we will cancel the registration of candidates found with mobile phones inside examination halls. The student may even be permanently barred from writing the examination,” Das said.

The council’s malpractice committee will decide whether a student would be allowed to seek fresh registration, depending on the nature of the offence, Das said.

The punishment for carrying mobile phones inside exam halls was made more stringent this year in the wake of complaints about Madhyamik question papers being circulated on WhatsApp while the examination was in progress. Images of the HS Bengali first-language paper had also appeared on WhatsApp in the middle of the exam last year.

Nearly 500 examination centres across the state have been identified as sensitive this time , Das said. The cyber crime department of the state police has been approached to maintain special vigil at all sensitive centres.

Cellphone detectors will be used in at least 250 sensitive centres. There will be two-tier detection — at the main gate of the venue and before entering the examination hall, Das said. The council will appoint a special nominee to maintain extra vigil at these venues. A representative of the district magistrate will be present at all sensitive venues as observer.