The Delhi High Court has declined to issue any interim direction for reopening the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) verification and re-evaluation portal for Class XII answer sheets amid the controversy surrounding the newly introduced On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.
The Vacation Bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna and Justice Madhu Jain held on Friday that reopening the portal at this stage could disrupt the entire post-result process, delay finalisation of results, and adversely affect undergraduate admission schedules across the country. The Court granted liberty to the individual students aggrieved by their results to pursue appropriate remedies independently.
The observations were made while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Vinod Jhakhar, President of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). The petition alleged large-scale irregularities, technical deficiencies and systemic failures in the implementation of CBSE’s digital OSM evaluation mechanism.
Appearing for the Union authorities and CBSE, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the plea and submitted that reopening the portal would have far-reaching consequences for approximately 17.8 lakh students who appeared in the Class XII examinations. He argued that any extension of the re-evaluation process would delay the declaration of final results and consequently affect university admission timelines.
The Solicitor General informed the Court that nearly 17.80 lakh students had appeared for the examinations and around 98.66 lakh answer sheets were processed. He explained that CBSE had first opened a window between May 19 and May 25 to enable students to obtain scanned copies of their answer books. During this period, more than four lakh students sought access to over 11 lakh answer sheets, all of which were provided by the Board.
Thereafter, the verification and re-evaluation portal remained operational from June 2 to 6, and was subsequently extended until June 7. According to the submissions, around 1.67 lakh students applied for re-evaluation, involving nearly 3.8 lakh answer sheets. SG Mehta contended that the statutory process had functioned effectively, students who wished to avail the remedy had done so, and the re-evaluation exercise was already underway.
He further submitted that the PIL was founded on broad assumptions and generalised allegations rather than specific instances warranting judicial intervention. The Solicitor General argued that extending the deadline at the behest of the petitioner would not be in the interest of the larger student community and could prejudice the academic prospects of lakhs of candidates awaiting final results for higher education admissions.
The counsel appearing for NSUI urged the Court to extend the re-evaluation window by at least one additional week, contending that many students had been unable to submit applications despite facing difficulties relating to answer sheets and the post-result grievance redressal process.
However, the Bench was not persuaded to grant immediate relief. The Court observed that although the extension sought appeared limited, reopening the portal would trigger a chain of consequential administrative steps, resulting in substantial delays. The Bench noted that what was being projected as a one-week extension could effectively postpone the overall process by nearly a month. Consequently, it declined to issue any further directions and stated that the matter would be considered by the appropriate roster bench.
On the request of the petitioner, the case was directed to be listed before the roster bench in July. NSUI sought an independent inquiry into the functioning of the OSM system, alleging that numerous students, parents and teachers across the country reported serious concerns following the declaration of results.
The petition claimed that although the OSM system was introduced as a digital mechanism for scanning and evaluating answer books, students encountered several anomalies, including blurred scans, missing pages, incomplete uploads, answer-sheet mismatches, unchecked responses, unexpectedly low marks and deficiencies in the grievance redressal framework.
It contended that the exceptionally high number of applications for scanned copies of answer sheets reflects a significant level of dissatisfaction and lack of confidence in the evaluation process. According to NSUI, such large-scale requests cannot be treated as a routine post-result exercise but instead indicate deeper concerns regarding the integrity and reliability of the digital assessment system.
It was further argued that the existing grievance mechanism was inadequate because students had access only to limited digital remedies and were deprived of any meaningful opportunity for manual verification or independent scrutiny of disputed answer books. The petition submitted that the absence of an effective corrective framework caused continuing prejudice to students, particularly as admission processes and academic calendars continue to progress while unresolved disputes remain pending.
The PIL sought reopening of the verification portal for one month, permission for manual rechecking and physical verification of answer sheets in disputed cases, direct oversight by the Union Government, and the constitution of an independent inquiry into the alleged irregularities.
Filed through Advocates Rishav Ranjan, Ajay Chhikara, Omar Hoda, Eesha Bakshi and Shubham Mishra, the petition sought the formulation of comprehensive safeguards, regulatory protocols and guidelines to ensure transparency, accountability and procedural fairness in future digital evaluation systems adopted by educational authorities.
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