CBSE OSM 2026 Row: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said it has received 43,980 applications for Class 12 verification and re-evaluation as of 12 noon on June 3, 2026. According to the board, 4,924 students applied for verification of marks, while 39,056 sought re-evaluation.
A day earlier, CBSE claimed its portal faced a cyberattack that generated 1.2 million hits within two minutes and over one lakh attempts at unauthorised file access. Despite this, the board said the portal remained functional.
"The portal has accepted 4924 applications for verification and 39056 applications for re-evaluation (total of 43980) as of 12 noon today. Our teams remain on constant watch to ensure a secure, reliable and student-friendly platform," CBSE said on X.
More than four lakh students had earlier applied to obtain over 11 lakh answer sheets, the first step required before seeking verification or re-evaluation.
How The OSM Controversy Began - Hacker, Students, Politicians, CBSE's Acceptance, Action
This year, CBSE introduced the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, replacing the traditional manual evaluation process with digital assessment.
Soon after the Class 12 results were declared, many students alleged that the new system had resulted in unexpectedly low marks. Complaints quickly spread across social media, turning the OSM system into a major point of debate.
Ethical Hacker Flags Security Issues
The controversy escalated when student and ethical hacker Nisarga Adhikary highlighted alleged vulnerabilities on the OSM portal, cbse.onmark.co.in.
In a video shared with NDTV, Adhikary demonstrated that a plaintext password was visible in the website's source code. According to him, even a non-technical user could inspect the page and access the password.
Image: Exposed Password As Claimed By Adhikary
Questions Raised Over OTP Security
Adhikary further claimed that the exposed password rendered the One-Time Password (OTP) security layer ineffective.
An OTP is normally sent to a registered mobile number or email address to verify a user's identity during login. However, he alleged that the system automatically populated the OTP, allowing the verification process to be bypassed.
Other Vulnerabilities Claimed
Adhikary also alleged that users could change passwords without entering their existing password.
He further claimed that student answer sheets stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) were publicly accessible. To support his claims, he shared screenshots that appeared to show scanned copies of CBSE Class 12 answer sheets.
Exposed Answer Sheets Screenshot Shared By Hacker
Sarthak Sidhant's Allegations Over OSM Tender
Class 12 student Sarthak Sidhant later appeared before a Parliamentary panel on education and presented findings related to CBSE's OSM contract.
He alleged irregularities in the award of the contract to Coempt Edu Teck Pvt Ltd, which handled the scanning and digital evaluation of answer sheets.
According to Sidhant, certain eligibility conditions mentioned in the tender, including financial requirements and performance-related criteria, were either modified or removed. He also questioned changes made to provisions related to vendor blacklisting.
The student said his research was conducted with the help of ethical hacker Nisarga Adhikary and journalists investigating the issue.
Sarthak Appearing Before The Parliamentary Panel
Tender Clause Removal
CBSE's original 2025 tender reportedly included a provision allowing a vendor to be blacklisted for violations. However, a corrigendum issued less than a month later removed the blacklisting clause while retaining provisions for financial penalties and contract termination.
NDTV reviewed the 132-page tender document. CBSE told NDTV that the original clause was removed after a request from the third-party service provider, TCS.
The final contract instead included financial penalties, including fines of Rs 1 lakh for delays in resolving critical issues and submitting corrective action plans.
Claims About Videos Supporting OSM
Reports later emerged claiming that school principals were being asked to record videos supporting the OSM system.
However, Education Ministry sources denied these claims and said CBSE had issued no official communication directing students, teachers or principals to create promotional videos in support of OSM.
CBSE's Response To Rahul Gandhi
The issue also drew political attention after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi questioned the contract awarded to Coempt Edutech.
CBSE rejected his allegations, calling them "erroneous, misleading and not based on facts". The board said the contract was awarded through the prescribed process under the General Financial Rules.
CBSE First Denied, Then Acknowledged Vulnerabilities
Initially, CBSE stated that the website referenced in social media posts was only a testing portal and not the actual platform used for evaluating answer sheets.
Adhikary disputed the claim, saying he was able to access production data and that similar vulnerabilities existed across multiple OnMark domains.
Days later, CBSE acknowledged the existence of security vulnerabilities on the platform used for evaluating scanned answer sheets. The board said cybersecurity experts from various government agencies and IITs had been deployed to strengthen the system.
CBSE added that identified vulnerabilities had been contained and that further checks were underway to eliminate any remaining weaknesses.
Student Says He Received Another Student's Answer Sheet
On May 23, a Class 12 student named Vedant posted on X claiming he had received another student's Physics answer sheet during the re-evaluation process.
The post gained significant attention online, crossing four million views.
On May 26, CBSE said it had taken the matter on priority, emailed Vedant his correct answer book and informed him that his marks would be revised after a fresh review.
Vedant with his brother
Re-Evaluation Fee Glitch
Several students also reported technical glitches on the re-evaluation portal.
One student shared screenshots showing that the fee, which should have been Rs 25 per question, unexpectedly displayed amounts ranging from a few rupees to Rs 8,000 and, in some cases, Rs 69,420 per subject.
CBSE Action
Amid the controversy, CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta were transferred.
Rahul Singh and Himanshu Gupta
IAS officer Prashant Sitaram Lokhande was appointed CBSE Chairman, while Varun Bhardwaj became the board's new Secretary.
Prashant Sitaram Lokhande and Varun Bhardwaj
The government also constituted a one-member committee headed by S. Radha Chauhan, Chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, to examine the procurement of OSM services. The committee has been asked to submit its report within a month.
On May 29, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan assured students and parents that technical issues related to the OSM system would be resolved.
Many students also pointed to their comparatively higher scores in competitive examinations such as JEE, arguing that the discrepancy raised questions about the Class 12 evaluation process. CBSE, however, maintained that similar concerns are raised every year after the declaration of results.