CBSE OSM glitches: SC closes plea, says revaluation will open ‘Pandora’s Box’

The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition seeking to reopen the revaluation window for Class 12 results affected by glitches in the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) On Screen Marking (OSM) system. The bench, led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, observed that allowing revaluation at this stage would open a "Pandora's Box."

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Why should we direct the CBSE to open the [revaluation] window for you? Today your merit has been revised. But tomorrow, there will be lakhs of candidates whose merit will be revised.

The plea was filed by lawyer Rakesh Binjola, who argued that system glitches led to result discrepancies for tens of thousands of students. He sought relaxation of minimum qualifying marks for students who had secured provisional admissions or cleared entrance exams. However, the court questioned the basis for directing the CBSE to reopen the window, emphasizing that revising one student's merit could lead to revisions for lakhs of others.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court that the college admission process was complete and that reopening the window would cause more problems. He noted that 168,000 students had applied when the revaluation window was initially provided, suggesting the petitioner had missed their opportunity. The court acknowledged these were hard cases but stated they could not "upset the entire system."

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But we cannot upset the entire system. It is your bad luck. What can we do?

Despite arguments that the system crashed and affected more students than cited by the CBSE, the bench sought proof of the system crash. The court noted that the Delhi High Court had previously dismissed a similar petition. Ultimately, the Supreme Court concluded that a direction to reopen the revaluation window could not be granted as admission test results were already finalized. The petition also sought a regulatory framework for CBSE examinations using the OSM system and the formation of a committee to supervise its implementation.

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If you miss the bus, you miss the bus. Nothing can be done.