Govt finally acts on CBSE, orders probe on day Gen-Z blogger, who exposed tenders, meets Parliament panel

THe Centre on tues moved against the leaders of the telephone exchange room of Secondary breeding (CBSE) and ordered an inquiry into a contentious Class-12 paper-evaluation contract, acting on the same day that a 17-year-old who'd exposed the tendering mess presented his findings to a parliamentary committee.CBSE chairman Rahul Singh and secretary Himanshu Gupta have been transferred amid mounting scrutiny of the procurement for the board's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, sources told news outlets. Their new postings were not immediately known.Separately, in an office memorandum dated June 2, the government constituted a one-member committee under S Radha Chauhan, chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, to inquire into the procurement of services for the OSM system. The committee is to submit its report to the Department of Personnel and Training within a month.The dual move came as the Union education ministry reacted to alleged irregularities in CBSE's tendering process and the cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the board's digital evaluation system. The OSM platform was used to score nearly 1 crore answer scripts this year.Blogger in ParliamentHours earlier, Sarthak Sidhant, 17, had presented his findings to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, which is reviewing the use of OSM in Class 12 examinations.Sidhant, who published his analysis on his website after poring over tender documents on the Central Public Procurement portal, alleges that CBSE rewrote its tender rules to favour Coempt EduTeck, the firm running the OSM system. He says a comparison of successive tenders revealed "at least 15 discrepancies", with clauses on blacklisting, financial qualification and eligibility altered across rounds. He has clarified that he is not opposed to OSM itself, but argued it needed wider testing and pilot runs before a full rollout.HT has also reported the changes; and that the contract was awarded to Coempt EduTeck on December 5, just 74 days before the first board examinations began on February 17.CBSE officials have so far denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that the tender was conducted in accordance with General Financial Rules and established government procurement procedures, and that the work was awarded to the lowest bidder. Coempt denies any corruption too. The fallout from the OSM rollout has been wide. After the board's Class 12 pass percentage fell to a seven-year low, students reported missing pages, blurred scans and, in some cases, answer sheets that were not their own. About 1.27 lakh applications covering nearly 3.87 lakh answer books have been filed by students seeking scanned copies. The Congress's student wing, the NSUI, has moved the Delhi High Court seeking a reopening of the verification process, manual re-checking in disputed cases, and an independent inquiry.The CBSE finally opened its verification and re-evaluation portal on Tuesday, but the mechanism meant to address the OSM grievances had a troubled start of its own. It went live only after a delay — it was expected by May 29 — and even the launch was dogged by problems. The board said "malicious actors" had attempted to disrupt the portal through a barrage of cyberattacks, including a denial-of-service attempt that caused 1.5 million hits within two minutes and more than one lakh attempts at unauthorised file access. The CBSE said it had refined the platform based on student feedback, including extending session time limits; and that more than 16,000 students had completed submissions by 3 pm, with over 8,000 concurrent users on the portal. The portal, open until June 6, is available only to students who obtained scanned copies of their answer books.What parliamentary panel can doThe parliamentary committee as such has no punitive authority, but it can summon officials to testify under oath and demand internal records, with any failure to cooperate pursued as a Breach of Privilege of Parliament.Neither the ministry nor CBSE can dismiss its findings outright; both must file an Action Taken Report explaining how each flaw was addressed, or why it was not.It is the same panel that, in the wake of the paper leak in the 2024 NEET-UG medical entrance test, had warned in a report that the National Testing Agency's performance had "not inspired much confidence".However, at a May 15 press conference this year after the NEET-UG 2026 leaked too, education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he would not act on those findings: "I do not want to go by the observations of the parliamentary committee… The Opposition members are in the parliamentary committee. You know better than me how they prepare the reports."The committee is a 31-member cross-party panel — 21 MPs from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. Though chaired by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, it does not have an Opposition majority; the BJP-led NDA holds the majority voice.The government chose instead to go with recommendations of a committee it formed under former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan.A wider exam crisisThe CBSE action lands amid a run of examination failures. NEET-UG 2026, taken by over 22 lakh candidates on May 3, was cancelled on May 12 after a paper leak; the CBI has arrested 13 people, and a re-test is set for June 21.Hearing pleas on the cancellation, the Supreme Court on May 29 told the NTA, "Either there is something wrong with the original recommendation or there is no proper implementation." Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that "Honourable Prime Minister is personally supervising" the re-conduct.Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has demanded Pradhan's removal, accusing him of betraying aspirants and insulting Parliament. Gandhi had sought a judicial inquiry into the OSM row, questioning why Coempt — previously known as Globarena and linked to earlier controversies — was awarded the contract.He has also praised Gen Z for raising its voice, mocking the suggestion from BJP backers that the youth protests were a "global plot to destabilise India".Pradhan had said he takes "full responsibility" for the disruptions and promised no further lapses.Sidhant is one of three teenagers who have driven the scrutiny — alongside Vedant Shrivastava, who was sent the wrong answer sheet by CBSE, and 19-year-old Nisarga Adhikary, an ethical hacker who flagged a vulnerability in the OSM portal.Their findings have been folded into a single demand by the Cockroach Janta Party, an online movement seeking Pradhan's removal that plans a protest at Jantar Mantar on June 6.