The Delhi High Court sought responses from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Union Government on a public interest litigation filed by the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), which has raised concerns over the functioning of the newly introduced On-Screen Marking (OSM) system used for evaluating Class 12 examination papers.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Neena Bansal Krishna and Justice Madhu Jain issued notice in the matter and scheduled the next hearing for June 12.
Background of the Case
The petition, filed through NSUI President Vinod Jhakhar, alleges that the digital evaluation process suffered from significant technical and procedural shortcomings. According to the plea, students, parents and teachers from different parts of the country reported problems such as blurred scanned answer sheets, missing pages, incomplete uploads, answer-sheet mismatches and unexpectedly low marks after the declaration of results.
NSUI argued that these complaints point to broader issues within the OSM system rather than isolated mistakes. The petition states that Class 12 marks are crucial for admissions, scholarships and professional courses, making any evaluation error potentially harmful to students’ academic prospects.
The plea also highlighted that over 1.27 lakh applications relating to nearly 3.87 lakh scanned answer sheets were submitted soon after the results were announced, claiming that the volume of requests reflected widespread concern among students.
At the outset, CBSE opposed the maintainability of the petition. Appearing for the Board, advocate M.A. Niyazi argued that the petitioner was a student wing of a political party.
“We do not want education to be politicised like this,” CBSE’s counsel submitted before the Bench.
He further informed the Court that CBSE had been engaging with students regarding their grievances and had extended the deadlines for verification and re-evaluation on multiple occasions. According to the Board, students’ concerns were already being addressed through existing mechanisms.
Representing NSUI, advocate Muhammad Ali Khan countered the objection and stated that the organisation was approaching the Court on behalf of affected students.
“We are a 55-year-old organisation, and the persons affected by the issue are minors. We are representing their cause,” he submitted.
The petitioner also pointed out that courts had previously entertained similar petitions filed by student organisations associated with other political groups.
The petition seeks an independent inquiry into the alleged irregularities, technical failures and grievance-handling issues linked to the OSM system.
It further requests directions for manual rechecking and physical verification of answer sheets where students dispute the scanned copies or evaluation process. NSUI has also sought compensatory marks in cases where answer scripts were allegedly missing, blurred or incorrectly assessed.
Additionally, the plea asks for the verification and re-evaluation portal to remain open for an additional month to enable affected students to pursue available remedies.
After hearing the parties, the Delhi High Court issued notice to CBSE and the Union Government, seeking their responses to the allegations raised in the petition.
The Bench posted the matter for further hearing on June 12.
