4 min readVadodaraMay 21, 2026 12:22 AM IST STATING THAT invoking an Act in retrospective effect was “bad, illegal and violative” of the fundamental rights of an accused, the Gujarat High Court recently quashed charges under the Gujarat Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2023, against an accused who allegedly allowed a dummy candidate to appear on his behalf in a 2017 examination for the post of Junior Clerk – held six years before the law came into existence. Justice Vimal Vyas of the Gujarat HC was hearing a petition filed  by Mahesh Chauhan, who was booked under the 2023 Act for the incident that dates back to 2017, in which Chauhan is accused of having arranged for a dummy candidate, named Kalpesh Jani, to appear on his behalf in the examination conducted on February 12, 2017 for the posts of Junior Clerk. Contending that he was not named in the original FIR filed at Bhavnagar police station, which was registered in 2023 – 11 years after the date of the similar alleged offence …