Needless ‘Class 12 result soon’ teasing, OSM, hacking row: CBSE's May mess-ups, clarifications

IT has been a jumpy month for the exchange room of Secondary training (CBSE), some would say, but it has been rougher for the students enrolled below it with first getting superfluously teased by the needless “result soon” alerts over Class 12 Board results then detecting discrepancies in the scorecards, produced using the controversial OSM system.CBSE has been going around giving out clarifications after discrepancies flagged by a Delhi student, Vedant Shrivastava, over mismatch of his Physics paper gave momentum to the already floating complains surrounding the Online Script Monitoring (OSM).CBSE's mess-upsThe unnecessary 'result soon' teasingCBSE's OSM mess-up has only added frustration for students, who were kept on edge by the body before the declaration of Class 12 Board results this year, with “result soon” notifications for two days before the actual declaration on May 13.Students had even called the education board 'irresponsible' after apps like UMANG and DigiLocker shared 'coming soon' updates for results.DigiLocker first shared a 'coming soon' update for the CBSE 12th results 2026 on May 11, at around 2:14 pm, then shared another similar update at around 5:38 pm. Meanwhile, the UMANG app first reposted the DigiLocker post on May 11, then shared its own post of 'CBSE Class-XII results coming soon' on May 12.These apps also reportedly sent multiple such update notifications, sparking anxiety and stress among students awaiting their CBSE Class 12 results.OSM system rowClass 12 results were declared on May 13, recording an overall pass percentage of 85.20, down by 3.19 percentage points from last year’s 88.39. The decline came in the first year of CBSE’s On Screen Marking (OSM) system for evaluating Class 12 answer sheets.CBSE introduced OSM for Class12 Board examinations from 2026. Under OSM, answer books are digitally scanned and evaluated online — which the board says eliminates totaling errors and reduces manual intervention.The system enables faster evaluation, wider teacher participation including overseas schools, reduced logistics costs, and environmentally sustainable processes, according to CBSE.The new OSM came under scrutiny over growing complaints alleging glitches and discrepancies in the re-evaluation process. The escalation of complaints prompted the CBSE to respond individually to affected students, providing necessary clarifications and corrective action. The concerns over CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) stem from allegations by students that the scanned copies of their answer sheets uploaded by the board did not match their handwriting, raising concerns over possible answer-sheet mismatch in the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.Among all the complaints and allegations, that particularly of a Class 12 student named Vedant Shrivastava went viral, bringing more attention to the issue, Vedant, a Delhi student who was trolled, abused and called a “Pakistani’ on social media after flagging discrepancies in the CBSE OSM system, alleged on May 23 that the Physics answer sheet uploaded by the CBSE under the re-evaluation process was not his.HT had earlier reported how the CBSE appeared to have ignored views from its own governing body members to hold pilot projects across regional offices before rolling out the OSM system for Class 12 board examinations this year. Read full report hereStudent allegations over OSMVedant, a Delhi resident, was among the students who reported issues ranging from blurry scans and missing pages to mismatched answer sheets after CBSE declared Class 12 Board results on May 13.Vedant had applied for scanned copies of his answer sheets on May 19 after securing what he described as “unexpectedly low marks” in Physics. When Vedant received the scanned copies on May 23, Shrivastava noticed that the Physics script uploaded against his roll number wasn’t his.He took to X to highlight the discrepancy, sharing side-by-side screenshots of the scripts from his English and Computer Science answer sheets to establish that the handwriting in the Physics paper was not his. “I studied for an entire year. I sacrificed sleep, peace of mind, outings, everything for these exams. And now I don’t even know whether my actual Physics paper was checked. Do students really deserve this?” he said in a post on X on May 23. By Monday evening, Vedant's post went massively viral, crossing 3.2 million (over 32 lakh) views. However, little did Vedant know that him highlighting a discrepancy would turn into a bigger social media controversy, with some netizens labelling him “Pakistani”.Amid the unwarranted social media bullying, the CBSE admitted — not through a public statement though — a technical glitch, vindicating Vedant. CBSE on Monday acknowledged that a technical issue had led to uploading an incorrect scanned copy against his roll number. In an email, reviewed by HT, CBSE joint secretary (coordination) acknowledged the mismatch pointed out by Vedant and said his marks would be revised shortly.Amid the entire Vedant episode, CBSE was parallelly replying to other students also who raised issues with their Class 12 results, the mismatch in answer sheets, all ultimately adding to the scrutiny on the OSM system.Amid OSM firefighting, teen ‘hacks’ CBSE portalStill firefighting the the OSM system complains for Class 12 Board exams, the CBSE found itself at the centre of another controversy recently, with a teen claiming to have “hacked” its portal.The teen, who identified himself as Nisarga Adhikary, 19, and a “hobbyist cybersecurity researcher” made the big claims in a blog he shared on X on May 22, following which the CBSE also released a clarification on Tuesday, rejecting claims that its marking platform had been compromised.A senior official from the ministry of electronics and information technology (IT) of India told Hindustan Times that CERT-In (the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) is looking into the matter and raised it with CBSE, while also suggesting measures to fix the issues, which they later undertook to complete. The response was to queries about the action taken following Nisarga's disclosure to CERT-In about alleged loopholes in February.Nisarga Adhikary, who claimed to have completed his Class 12 examinations this year, also said he had hacked the CBSE website and identified serious lapses in the OSM system.Although his X post dated May 22 initially received little attention, technology entrepreneur Deedy Das later noticed it and shared it on his own account. Das described it as "an absolute embarrassment" and claimed that the flaws could have enabled someone to "view and CHANGE any students' marks". Read full report on Nisarga Adhikary's claims here CBSE reacts to hacking claimsReacting to the allegations, CBSE said the portal used for checking answer sheets had a different URL from the one shown in the teenager's screenshots.CBSE said the alleged issues flagged by him came from a "testing site"."At the outset, it is clarified that the Portal used for evaluation of answer-books bore a different URL, which has neither been compromised nor does it have the vulnerabilities indicated in the said social media post. The URL: http://cbse.onmark.co.in is the testing site only with sample data for internal testing and review purposes," the board said in a post on X.The board said no security breach had been identified in the OSM portal used for the actual evaluation process.Between needless result teasers, allegations of mismatched answer sheets, social media outrage and now questions over portal security, CBSE has come under fire over risks of implementing large-scale technological reforms without adequate transparency and trust-building.