Five Madhyamik examinees who were allegedly caught with mobile phones inside test venues on Wednesday have been barred from writing the remaining papers, an official of the state secondary education board said.

Wednesday’s paper was second language. All five students had English as their second language.

This is the first time the board has barred students caught with cellphones in exam halls from writing the remaining papers.

Till last year, a candidate found with a cellphone in the exam hall would only have the day’s paper cancelled. Such students, however, would fail if the cancelled paper was a compulsory one.

One of the five, whose exam venue was a school in Malda’s Ratua, has been arrested. Of the remaining four, three had their exam centres in Barrackpore, North 24-Parganas, and one in Malda’s Kaliachak.

Board officials said the examinee who was arrested had clicked three pages of the question paper on his cellphone soon after the test started at 11.45am. Invigilators allegedly caught him circulating the images on social media.

Teachers who have been conducting Madhyamik in Malda, however, said in the evening that the paper that was circulated by the examinee did not match the question paper.

Biplab Gupta, a teacher and convener of the district-level committee formed by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education to conduct the exam, said: “The question papers do not match. It seems to be an attempt to try and create an unnecessary concern among examinees, teachers, guardians and others.”

Senior officials of the board met after the exam and resolved to bar the students caught with mobile phones inside exam venues “from writing the examinations further,” board president Kalyanmoy Ganguly said.

“Invigilation is strict at every exam centre. We are trying our best to prevent students from entering the premises with cellphones. But some students are still managing to do so…. Students can’t be frisked…,” Ganguly said.

The resolution adopted by the board officials on Monday read: “…this Board of Discipline… herein takes the following decisions…. Any candidate found with mobile phone or electronic gadget inside examination hall shall forthwith be expelled from examination. He shall not take any further paper and shall be debarred from entering the venue premises thereafter by the venue supervisor and venue in charge. His mobile phone shall be seized and sent to the Board….”

The board also resolved to empower officials at exam venues to lodge an FIR if any examinee is caught with a cellphone or a smartwatch on the venue premises.

A part of the Bengali first language paper was allegedly found circulating on WhatsApp 15 minutes after the exam had started on Tuesday.