New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on a petition seeking an independent inquiry into alleged issues surrounding the board’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system used for evaluating Class 12 answer sheets.
A vacation bench comprising Justices Neena Bansal Krishna and Madhu Jain issued notices to the respondents and scheduled the matter for hearing on June 12.
The petition was filed by the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), which has raised concerns over alleged technical glitches, evaluation discrepancies, blurred scanned answer sheets and shortcomings in the grievance redressal process linked to the digital assessment platform.
During the hearing, CBSE’s counsel questioned the maintainability of the petition, arguing that it had been filed by a student wing affiliated with a political party and that educational issues should not become a subject of political contestation.
The OSM system, which enables examiners to assess digitised answer sheets instead of physical copies, has faced scrutiny since the declaration of Class 12 results on May 13. Concerns have been raised over the quality of scanned answer scripts, transparency in evaluation and data security.
The contract for the digital evaluation platform was awarded to Coempt Edu Tech on December 5, just over two months before board examinations commenced on February 17.
The issue has also attracted the attention of the Union education ministry. On June 1, the ministry sought a report from CBSE regarding the procurement process related to the OSM system. A day later, the board opened its verification of marks and re-evaluation portal after delays, while the government simultaneously initiated an inquiry into the procurement process and announced changes in the board’s top leadership.
In its petition, NSUI argued that repeated public clarifications issued by CBSE reflected growing concerns among students about the reliability of the digital evaluation mechanism.
The plea seeks manual rechecking and physical verification of answer sheets in cases where students challenge the accuracy of scanned copies or the evaluation process. It has also requested a one-month extension of the verification and re-evaluation window and compensatory marks for students whose answer scripts were allegedly missing, blurred or incorrectly assessed.
Represented by advocates Rishav Ranjan and Eesha Bakshi, the petition highlighted that CBSE had acknowledged technical issues on the portal through which students could access scanned copies of their answer books.
According to the plea, around 127,146 applications covering 387,399 scanned answer sheets were submitted shortly after the results were announced, a figure that it claimed reflected widespread concern among students about the evaluation process.
The petition further stated that such a large number of requests immediately after the declaration of results could not be treated as a routine post-result exercise. It also referred to CBSE’s clarification that a disputed URL circulating online was only a testing site containing sample data.
NSUI contended that the need for multiple public clarifications by the board had contributed to questions regarding the credibility and transparency of the digital evaluation system. The matter will next be heard on June 12.
BI Bureau
