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What began as a Class 12 student questioning a mismatched Physics answer sheet has now snowballed into one of the biggest education controversies of the year. CBSE’s newly introduced On-Screen Marking or OSM system, launched for Class 12 board evaluations in 2026, is facing intense scrutiny after students across India reported blurred scans, missing supplementary sheets, portal crashes, payment glitches and alleged answer-sheet mismatches. The controversy intensified after Delhi student Vedant Shrivastava claimed the Physics answer sheet uploaded under his roll number was not his own. As his post went viral, he was trolled online and even labelled “Pakistani” for raising concerns about the system. CBSE later admitted there had indeed been a mix-up and sent him the correct answer sheet, confirming his allegations.The controversy has also exposed wider technical problems within the CBSE re-evaluation process. Students and parents reported repeated portal failures, payment deductions without confirmation and bizarre glitches, including one case where the portal allegedly displayed a revaluation fee of Rs 69,420 instead of Re 1. With over 98 lakh answer books scanned digitally under the OSM system, questions are now being raised over scan quality, evaluator training, answer-sheet mapping and the overall reliability of India’s largest school examination board. As political attacks intensify and IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur teams are brought in to examine the glitches, the bigger question remains. Can India’s high-stakes examination system transition towards digitisation without compromising fairness, transparency and student trust?