Sarthak Sidhant, the 18-year-old student who alleged irregularities in CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) tender process, on Tuesday presented his findings before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports.
He claimed that key eligibility and evaluation criteria were altered before the contract was awarded to Hyderabad-based COEMT EduTech. He also raised concerns over the implementation of the system and its impact on students.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee, chaired by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, met on Tuesday to discuss the use of the OSM system in CBSE Class 12 board examinations and concerns that emerged following its rollout.
Speaking to ANI after the meeting, Singh said, "The committee is concerned and will do whatever can be done in the interest of the students."
On Sarthak's presentation, he said, "He has made his presentation. It is for the committee to decide (on the replies given by the CBSE)."
The parliamentary panel had also summoned Nisarg Adhikari, who was among the first to highlight alleged shortcomings in the OSM portal. However, he did not appear before the committee.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee is currently examining these concerns as part of its review of the OSM system and its impact on students.
According to Sarthak, CBSE modified aspects of its selection framework in a manner that benefited the company that was eventually chosen to implement the OSM system. He had earlier told NDTV that he examined tender documents and related records available on government procurement portals and identified multiple changes in the Request for Proposal (RFP) documents issued between May and August 2025.
He alleged that some of these changes appeared to favour COEMT EduTech. According to him, the tender process went through three rounds before the contract was awarded. While the first two rounds were unsuccessful, COEMT EduTech secured the contract in the third round and was formally awarded the project on December 5, 2025. CBSE later announced the full-scale implementation of the OSM system on February 9, 2026.
Among the changes highlighted by Sarthak was the removal of a clause relating to "poor performance" in previous projects. He claimed that earlier versions of the tender documents allowed for the disqualification of bidders with a history of poor performance, failure to complete contracts or financial weaknesses. According to him, this provision was removed from the August 2025 RFP.
He also pointed to revisions in the blacklisting criteria. Sarthak alleged that an earlier version of the tender disqualified companies that had been blacklisted in the past, whereas the revised document referred only to entities that were "currently blacklisted".
