“If You Don’t Use The Bus, You Miss It”: Supreme Court Rejects Plea To Reopen CBSE Class 12 Re-Evaluation Portal
The Supreme Court rejected a plea seeking the reopening of the CBSE Class 12 re-evaluation portal, observing that the window had remained open for a specified period for all students.
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The Supreme Court on August 25 rejected a plea seeking the reopening of the CBSE Class 12 re-evaluation portal after students claimed they could not apply for the facility because the website had crashed and due to the newly introduced On-Screen Marking (OSM) evaluation system.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana questioned why the portal should be reopened when it had been available to all students for a specified period.
“Why should we direct them to open this window again for you? If you don’t use the bus, you miss the bus. The window was open for everyone for a specified period,” the CJI said.
The counsel appearing for the petitioner sought only a week’s time to allow students to apply and submitted that the website had crashed during the original application window. “The website crashed and many students could not apply for on-screen verification,” the counsel said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), submitted that 1.68 lakh students had applied during the notified window. He also pointed out that the Delhi High Court had already rejected a similar plea.
The plea also challenged the manner in which CBSE introduced the OSM system for evaluation of answer sheets. It alleged that the process of checking answer sheets through computers resulted in some pages not being scanned, due to which certain answers or complete pages may not have been evaluated.
What Is OSM?
On-Screen Marking (OSM) is a digital evaluation system in which scanned copies of students’ answer sheets are made available to examiners on a computer screen for assessment. Instead of physically checking the original answer sheets, evaluators review the scanned answer sheets digitally and enter marks through the system.
The system is intended to streamline the evaluation process, improve monitoring and reduce logistical challenges associated with transporting and handling physical answer sheets. However, the petitioners raised concerns about possible scanning-related issues, claiming that some pages or answers may not have been properly captured during the process.
With the Supreme Court rejecting the plea, the request to reopen the CBSE Class 12 re-evaluation portal has not been accepted.
Sahil Behl is an education journalist at Jagran with over a year of experience in journalism. Prior to joining Jagran, he worked as a Sub-Editor in NDTV's Education department, where he was responsible for writing and editing education-related content as well as managing the department's social media presence. At Jagran, he covers a wide range of education topics, including board examinations, school updates, admissions, and job notifications, while leveraging his editorial expertise and strong understanding of digital content strategy.
Sahil holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and has also completed an eight-month certification program in Data Science. Passionate about emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, he closely tracks their growing role in journalism and explores how they are transforming shaping the future of the media industry.
