NSUI moves Delhi High Court over CBSE OSM row; seeks probe

National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) has approached the Delhi High Court alleging widespread irregularities and technical failure in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) system affecting class 12 students.

Filed through NSUI President Vinod Jhakhar, the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition has sought directions from the Court to award compensatory marks to students whose answer scripts were missing, blurred or incorrectly evaluated. 

The plea prays for an independent inquiry “into the large-scale irregularities, deficiencies, technical issues and grievance related failures concerning the OSM system” and orders for manual rechecking and physical verification of answer sheets in cases where students dispute the correctness of the scanned copies or the evaluation process.

Further, directions have been sought to keep the verification and re-evaluation portal open for an additional month to allow affected students to seek remedies. 

Lawyers of NSUI told Bar and Bench that they are trying to get the matter listed this week. At present, the Delhi High Court is working partially due to summer vacations, and benches sit on alternate days. 

In its plea, NSUI has argued that class 12 marks play a critical role in determining admissions to universities, scholarships and professional courses, making any evaluation errors potentially detrimental to students’ academic futures.

According to the petition, students, parents and teachers across the country reported issues including blurred scanned answer sheets, missing pages, incomplete uploads, answer-sheet mismatches and unexpectedly low marks after the declaration of results. The student body contends that these complaints indicate systemic flaws in the OSM system rather than isolated incidents.

The petition cites CBSE’s public communications acknowledging technical glitches on the portal used for accessing scanned answer books. It notes that approximately 1,27,146 applications relating to 3,87,399 scanned answer sheets were submitted within a short period after the results were announced.

“This figure reflects an extraordinary level of concern and lack of confidence amongst students regarding the process. When such a large number of students seek scanned copies immediately after result declaration, the matter cannot be treated as a routine post-result formality,” the plea states. 

The petition has been filed through advocates Rishav Ranjan and Ajay Chhikara.