A total of 24 candidates have so far been disqualified from appearing in the Class XII Board examination in West Bengal as they entered the exam centre with mobile phones in violation of rules, a senior official said.

While seven students were disqualified on Friday, February 23, 17 others had earlier been barred from writing their papers, President of West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Examination, Chiranjib Bhattacharya, said in a statement.

“The steps were adopted to prevent any malpractices, including taking photographs of the question papers and circulating those,” he told PTI.

“We have zero tolerance for such acts. The ones disqualified cannot sit for exams for one year,” Bhattacharya said.

For the first time, the council assigned a unique serial number to each question paper this year to address concerns about test paper leaks, he explained.

One person was arrested recently from Nadia district for “promising to share question papers in exchange for money”, another council official said.

An estimated 7,89,867 students are appearing for this year's Class XII Board examinations, which started on February 16 and will go on till February 29.