Protect interests of students: Supreme Court asks CBSE to address OSM evaluation issues

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to explore ways to protect the interests of students facing difficulties in entrance-based admissions due to their scores under the Board’s new On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for evaluating answer sheets.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was told that some students had cleared their CBSE examinations and had subsequently appeared for entrance examinations for other courses. However, they had not secured the minimum marks required for admission because of their CBSE scores, and some of the courses had already commenced.

The plea linked the lesser marks/ scores to the irregularities in OSM evaluation system.

The Bench then asked CBSE to examine the issue and find out how the interests of such students could be protected.

"Please find out how can you protect their interest," the Court said before adjourning the matter.

The Court was hearing a petition challenging the manner in which CBSE introduced the OSM system for evaluation of answer sheets, claiming that it was implemented for the first time in 2026 and that teachers were not provided formal training before its implementation.

According to the petition, CBSE issued a circular on February 9, 2026 regarding the OSM system and another circular on the same day concerning the relieving of teachers for the entire day to undertake evaluation through the system. A further circular issued on February 14 dealt with updating teachers’ personal credentials and login guidelines, while a February 18 communication directed teachers to complete mock evaluations and monitoring exercises as part of the OSM training process.

The petitioner, however, alleged that no official training was provided to the concerned teachers for examination and evaluation through the OSM system and that the system was implemented without adequate formal information or training.

The plea further alleged that the introduction of digital scanning resulted in several irregularities, including certain pages of answer sheets not being scanned, illegible scans and answers or pages not being evaluated.

The petitioner claimed that these errors led to arbitrary evaluation and in some cases, non-evaluation of answer sheets.

As per the plea, the resulting evaluation process affected students across India and abroad and violated their rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

The petitioner also said that an application seeking a copy of his son’s answer sheet did not yield results because the answer sheet was not being uploaded on the CBSE website.

As per the plea, the alleged irregularities has led to a decline in the overall class 12 pass percentage.

The pass percentage fell to 85.2% in 2026, a decline of 3.19 percentage points from the previous year and the lowest level in seven years, it was submitted.

Among other reliefs, the petitioner has sought directions for re-evaluation or rechecking of answer sheets, quashing of alleged illegal disqualifications and permission for affected students to participate provisionally in subsequent admission processes.

The petitioner has contended that the alleged irregularities have affected a large number of students in India and abroad and could have consequences for their future academic opportunities.

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