How bad is to cheat in Exams?? continued..

isn't cheating is criminal and against some very basic principles of life? don't u think its as good as stealing and robbing? In a student's career the marks/grade he obtains is supposed to reflect his proficiency in that very subject. By cheating in exams we r not only doing injustice to other fellow students but also compromising the basic values of the education. Its highly unfortunate that even in a institute of stature like IIT Kanpur, many students are indulged in various levels of cheaitng. The more appaling fact is that some faculty members turn their deaf ears towards it and allow it to happen. My experience in IITK was that initially only very few students was trying to cheat but number grew by leaps and bounds as time passed. The reason of this drastic increase seems to me that even if a single person is cheating it affects the junta adversely as junta dont want to lay behind when grades are at stake in such a cut- throat competitive environment. I talked to many of my friends and most of them accept that its wrong to cheat but they are not ready to giveup cheating as they think why they first? what do you think?