The Union government on Friday (August 21, 2026) told the Supreme Court that it cannot consider giving grace marks to students who raised discrepancies in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) of Class 12 answer sheets in 2026.
“The number is huge. A week is too less,” Mr. Shukla submitted. Mr.
A one-week window was opened for re-evaluation and 1.68 lakh students had applied for change in their marks, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, appearing before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. However, they were stuck for not having scored the required minimum qualifying marks in the Class 12 exams. Advocate Laxmikant Matadan Shukla, representing petitioner Rakesh Binjola, said students who had suffered to due to faulty OSM evaluation have gone on to clear other entrance exams.
“Now, they (petitioners) are asking for grace marks, that is not possible,” Mr. Mehta, for the Centre, said. He said that many students who had applied for re-evaluation did not receive their revised answer sheets. Mehta said the Centre did not view the litigation as an adversarial one, however, the petitioners seemed to have missed their chance during the one week when the window was opened to accept applications for re-evaluation.
The top court asked the government to file an affidavit detailing the remedial measures taken following the spotting of irregularities in the OSM-valued answer sheets. Radha Chauhan, tasked to unearth the reasons behind the technical defects. The petitioner was instructed to file a rejoinder pointing out cases in which students seeking re-evaluation could not access the portal due to infrastructural deficiencies, and the cases of those who were able to give their answer sheets for re-evaluation, but did not receive their revised answer sheets.
The court had earlier sought a status report from the government detailing the progress made by a one-member probe committee of retired IAS officer and chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, S.
