The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice on a public interest litigation filed by the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) alleging large-scale irregularities and deficiencies in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) newly introduced On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for evaluation of Class XII examination answer sheets.
The Division Bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna and Justice Madhu Jain sought responses from the Union Government through the Department of Education and the CBSE. The matter has been listed for further hearing on June 12.
At the outset, CBSE opposed the maintainability of the petition. Appearing for the Board, Standing Counsel MA Niyazi raised a preliminary objection, contending that the petition had been instituted by a political organisation, namely the student wing of a political party, and argued that educational issues should not be politicised.
The counsel appearing for NSUI countered the objection, submitting that the organisation’s association with a political party did not disentitle it from invoking the writ jurisdiction of the High Court, particularly when the petition was filed in public interest on behalf of affected students.
CBSE further submitted that the verification portal could not remain open indefinitely and stated that student grievances arising from the evaluation process were already being addressed through the mechanisms put in place by the Board.
After hearing the parties, the Court issued notice on the PIL and sought responses from the concerned authorities.
Filed by NSUI President Vinod Jhakhar, the petition sought an independent inquiry into the functioning of the OSM system. It raised concerns regarding alleged technical glitches, evaluation-related discrepancies and the inadequacy of the grievance redressal framework available to students.
According to the petition, the OSM system was introduced as a digital mechanism for scanning and evaluating answer books. However, following the declaration of examination results, a large number of students, parents and teachers reportedly expressed concerns regarding blurred scanned copies, missing pages, incomplete uploads, mismatched answer sheets, unexpectedly low marks and the absence of an effective system for manual verification of answer scripts.
NSUI contended that the petition has been filed in the larger public interest on behalf of lakhs of students who appeared in the CBSE Class XII examinations conducted under the digital evaluation framework.
The plea further stated that an unusually high number of students sought access to scanned copies of their answer books immediately after the declaration of results. According to the petitioner, this reflected widespread concern and diminishing confidence in the evaluation process adopted under the OSM system.
The petition argued that when such a significant number of students were seeking answer-sheet verification immediately after results were declared, the issue could not be treated as a routine post-result exercise. It submitted that the volume of requests itself indicated serious apprehensions regarding the accuracy and reliability of the assessment process.
NSUI has also alleged that the existing grievance redressal mechanism was inadequate and did not provide students with a meaningful opportunity for manual verification or independent rechecking of disputed answer scripts. It contends that students are presently confined to limited digital remedies, which are insufficient to address alleged evaluation errors.
The petition further asserted that the absence of a robust corrective mechanism causes serious prejudice to students because admission processes and the academic calendar continue to progress while disputes concerning marks and evaluation remain unresolved.
In view of these concerns, the PIL sought directions for reopening the verification portal
for a period of one month and permitting manual rechecking and physical verification of answer books in disputed cases. It also seeks direct oversight by the Union Government and an independent inquiry into the alleged irregularities associated with the OSM system.
Additionally, the petition requests the formulation of comprehensive safeguards, regulatory protocols and operational guidelines for future implementation of digital evaluation systems to ensure transparency, accountability, procedural fairness and protection of students’ academic interests.
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