On Tuesday, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition that sought to address issues related to the On Screen Marking (OSM) evaluation method used by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for Class XII examinations. The court noted that allowing revaluation at this point could lead to significant complications, referring to it as opening a ‘Pandora’s Box.’ This decision comes amid ongoing concerns regarding the fairness and accuracy of the marking process.
However, Mehta reiterated that the admission process to colleges is over and reopening the window at this belated stage will lead to more problems. He pointed out that the petitioner had missed the bus and cannot now seek any relief. “During the window period, the system was crashing. The bench sought proof that the system had crashed. Three days later, the present petition was filed in the top court.
The petitioner’s lawyer, advocate Lakshmikant Shukla told the court that this is not a relief limited to the petitioner alone as lakhs of students could not avail of the window period due to various reasons. He informed the court that when the revaluation window was provided, 168,000 students had applied and claimed relief. There are more students than 1.68 lakh as claimed by the CBSE,” Shukla said. Mehta pointed out to the court that this issue was investigated by the Delhi high court which dismissed a petition on June 12.
CBSE, represented by solicitor general Tushar Mehta said it is in the process of filing a response.
Last week, the court had asked the Centre and CBSE to file a response on having a permanent mechanism to deal with the OSM glitches seeking a response on whether the earlier window period of one week provided to students seeking revaluation could be reopened.
