Supreme Court raises students’ ‘frustration’ over CBSE OSM glitches with Govt., seeks status report

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (July 15, 2026) asked the Union government to pay heed to the “frustration” children underwent due to the systemic failures and irregularities in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) of Class 12 answer sheets in 2026.

The court sought a status report from the government detailing the progress made by a one-member probe committee of retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, S. Radha Chauhan, tasked to unearth the reasons behind the technical defects.

“But what steps have been taken so far... Look at the amount of frustration young children are having to face,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a three-judge Bench, addressed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Centre.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Rakesh Binjola, through advocate Laxmikant Matadan Shukla, seeking a fair and reasonable inquiry into the “patent irregularities” found in the OSM evaluation system. The petition sought individual responsibility to be fixed for a failure which affected a large number of students in India and abroad.

Mr. Binjola said over 17 lakh students had appeared for the Class 12 exams in May 2026, including his son, whose answer sheet could not be uploaded on the CBSE website.

Mr. Mehta said the “personal” issue of the petitioner was resolved. The “general” prayer made about the faults in the OSM is being looked into by the Chauhan panel, which was appointed on June 2.

Justice Joymalya Bagchi, on the Bench, said the Centre was free to formulate the OSM policy, but the facts show, and the government had itself acknowledged, there were anomalies in implementation.

“We are seeking your assistance not in an adversarial way… You have a right to formulate the OSM policy, but the facts show there are some teething problems which you also acknowledge… We would like you to make improvements for seamless implementation,” Justice Bagchi addressed Mr. Mehta.

The top law officer said the government was not taking the court’s intervention on an adversarial note, and agreed to file the status report by July 24, the next date of hearing.

Mr. Binjola said the OSM system had been implemented for the first time without giving the evaluators any formal training.

The petition listed several irregularities, including the illegible scanning of answer sheet pages and unchecked answers showing “systematic negligence/failure resulting in a breach of duty of care”.

“Irregularities in the OSM checking system has affected a large number of students, recording a huge drop in the overall pass percentage this year to 85.2% — a drop of 3.19 percentage points from last year and the lowest level seen in the past seven years,” the petition said.

The petition said the CBSE covered over 29,000 schools in India, and 257 schools across 25 foreign countries.