New Delhi, 2 June

Congress party's student wing on Tuesday moved the Delhi High Court seeking an independent enquiry into the alleged large-scale irregularities in CBSE's on-screen marking (OSM) system for class 12 exam.

The public interest litigation (PIL) petition by the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) also seeks manual rechecking and physical verification of answer sheets of aggrieved students.

It is likely to be heard by a vacation bench of the High Court on 8 June.

The PIL seeks a direction to the authorities to keep their portal open for verification and revaluation of answer sheets of affected students for one month.

The NSUI said the sharp decline in overall performance in this year's class 12 results has led to widespread concern among students and parents regarding the fairness, consistency and reliability of the OSM system, especially in the light of several requests for scanned answer books and complaints on discrepancies and technical issues acknowledged by the CBSE.

The plea asserted that concerns around OSM were not confined to a "small set of students" and those whose answer sheets were affected by scanning defects, mismatch errors or other technical failures cannot be made to suffer because of deficiencies in the system.

"The Respondent No. 2 (CBSE) itself acknowledged, through its own public communications, that the portal for obtaining scanned copies of answer books suffered technical glitches and that a very large number of applications, approximately 1,27,146 applications concerning 3,87,399 scanned answer books, had been submitted in a very short time," the plea submitted.

"The Petitioner submits that 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," it added.

The plea claimed that the existing grievance mechanism is inadequate as it left students with "limited digital remedies" and "no meaningful process for manual verification or independent rechecking of disputed answer books."

The plea emphasised that injury to students is in the form of lost admission opportunities, delayed academic progression, loss of scholarship chances and long-term disadvantage in professional life.

The petition, filed through advocate Rishav Ranjan, sought a direction to the authorities to formulate and implement proper safeguards, protocols and guidelines for future digital evaluation systems.

A prayer is also made to award compensatory higher marks to students whose answer scripts are missing or blurred.

The Centre and CBSE are parties to the petition.

Meanwhile, NSUI national president Vinod Jakhar said students should not suffer academic losses due to technical and administrative failures in the evaluation process.

"NSUI has strongly argued before the Court that students cannot be forced to suffer academic losses due to technical and administrative failures caused by a flawed system implemented by the examination authority itself," a statement released by the outfit said.

It said the matter is of significant importance since more than 1.29 lakh students have applied for verification and revaluation, while around 1.11 lakh students were declared unsuccessful in the class 12 exam.

The petition has been filed through, besides Rishav Ranjan, advocates Ajay Chhikara, Omar Hoda and Eesha Bakshi, NSUI said.