Delhi HC refuses to order re-opening of CBSE Class 12 revaluation portal in response to NSUI’s PIL. Here’s why | Today’s news

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to direct the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to reopen its portal for revaluation of Class 12 answer sheets in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress, according to PTI.

A vacation bench comprising Justices Neena Bansal Krishna and Madhu Jain observed that every individual student who felt aggrieved had an opportunity to pursue appropriate legal remedies. The court also observed that reopening the portal, which was open from June 2 to 7, would likely cause a delay in the overall result declaration process.

“It’s a week for you, but the whole process will be delayed by a month… You don’t understand. It’s not one step. I’m not giving further directions. Whoever is harmed, let the individual come forward,” the bench said.

At the request of NSUI’s legal representative, the court agreed to include the case in the relevant list in July for further consideration.

Read also | HC asks Centre, CBSE to respond to plea highlighting irregularities in OSM

Earlier, on June 8, the court had asked the Center and the CBSE to submit their replies to the NSUI petition. The petition also seeks an independent inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the On Screen Marking (OSM) system used for the evaluation of class 12 papers.

What did SG Tushar Mehta say?

The counsel representing the NSUI requested the court to direct the CBSE to keep the revaluation portal open for a few more days. However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the authorities, claimed that the students who are actually affected have already submitted their applications and their answer sheets are currently being scrutinized.

Mehta argued that the PIL was based on “very general assumptions”. He warned that granting NSUI’s request could negatively affect the admission process for more than 17,000 students. He further stated that extending the deadline only because of the request of the petitioner would not serve the interests of the students. The court was also informed that the CBSE had already granted an extension by keeping the portal open till June 7 instead of the original closing date of June 6.

Read also | CBSE says more than 1.6 million candidates applied for services after the result

“The system is working for those who wanted to apply… More than 1.67 million students have applied and 3.8 million students are being screened. The students who were harmed came before us. That’s not a small number. It means the portal worked,” Mehta said.

Mehta further informed the court that before launching the verification and revaluation portal, CBSE made a separate portal available from May 19 to May 25 for students to access scanned copies of their answer sheets. More than 11 million answer sheets have been claimed by nearly 4 million students through this facility.

The concerns surrounding OSM were not limited to a “small group of students”: the NSUI

The PIL, filed through advocate Rishav Ranjan, also demands that the answer sheets of students who are not satisfied with their marks be physically verified and manually re-evaluated.

Read also | Sarthak Sidhant urges CBSE to extend review deadline: ‘He was busy exposing’

According to a petition filed by the NSUI, this year’s Class 12 exam results showed a significant decline in the overall performance of students, raising serious concerns among students and parents about the transparency, accuracy and reliability of the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.

The petition alleges that these concerns have been heightened by a large number of requests seeking scanned copies of answer scripts, as well as complaints regarding irregularities in marking and technical glitches allegedly acknowledged by the CBSE.

The petition argued that the problems surrounding the OSM system were not limited to just a handful of students. He argued that students whose answer sheets may have been affected by scanning errors, mismatched entries or other technical glitches should not be unfairly disadvantaged because of flaws in the grading system.

NSUI argued that any flaws in the assessment process must not be at the expense of students’ academic interests and future opportunities.

“Respondent No. 2 (CBSE) has itself admitted through its own public communications that the portal for obtaining scanned copies of answer sheets was suffering from technical glitches and that a very large number of applications, approximately 1,27,146 applications relating to 3,87,399 scanned answer sheets, were filed within a very short period of time,” the plea said.

He further stated, “The petitioner submits that this figure reflects an extraordinary level of anxiety and lack of confidence among students regarding the process. When such a large number of students seek scanned copies immediately after the declaration of results, the matter cannot be considered a routine post-result formality.”