The Indian government informed the Supreme Court that it cannot grant grace marks to Class 12 students who reported issues with the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) system in 2026. A re-evaluation window was open for one week, during which 1.68 lakh students applied for mark corrections. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, stated that providing grace marks is not feasible.
Laxmikant Shukla, representing petitioner Rakesh Binjola, argued that many students who applied for re-evaluation did not receive their revised results. He emphasized that a week was insufficient and highlighted the impact on students’ futures due to the faulty evaluation system.
The court requested the government to submit an affidavit detailing actions taken to address the OSM issues. Petitioners were instructed to provide details of cases where students couldn’t access the portal or did not receive revised sheets.
Earlier, the court had asked for a report from the probe committee headed by S. Radha Chauhan, which was tasked with investigating the technical defects in the OSM system. The petition highlighted irregularities such as illegible scans and unchecked answers, leading to a significant drop in pass percentage to 85.2%, the lowest in seven years.
Petitioner Binjola sought accountability for those responsible for the failure, which affected over 17 lakh students, including his son whose answer sheet was not uploaded on the CBSE website.