New Delhi [India], May 24 : Following widespread social media backlash and anxiety among students over the newly introduced digital evaluation process, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sunday announced that all the candidates who were charged extra while applying for scanned copies during the Class 12 post-result process will be refunded.
In a notice dated May 24, the CBSE said that certain technical issues led to incorrect fee deductions in some cases while students were applying for scanned copies on May 21 and May 22.
"In some instances, excess payment was deducted, while in others, lesser amounts were charged," the notice read.
The CBSE further stated that in all cases of excess payment, the exact excess amounts shall be refunded to the same payment method which was used for payment. Similarly, in cases where a lesser payment was deducted, candidates shall be informed separately regarding payment of the balance amount, if required.
The notice added that scanned copies of the evaluated answer sheets are to be provided in all such cases, without candidates being required to submit fresh requests.
This comes after many students drew sharp criticism, including JEE Main qualifiers, who reported unexpectedly low theory marks in numerical and science subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Accountancy, and Economics.
Complaints intensified when the re-evaluation window opened. Students downloaded scanned copies and shared them online, alleging: unchecked answers, missing step marks in multi-page responses, blurry/unreadable scans, mismatches between page-wise marks and final totals, and repeated server crashes with payment failures on the re-evaluation portal.
Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Education has stepped in to monitor the situation. Top sources told ANI that the Ministry is closely providing administrative oversight to CBSE and is vigilantly monitoring the final outcomes of the Class 12 board results.
According to high-level Ministry sources, the government is treating student grievances as a priority while simultaneously assessing the efficiency of the digital transition.
The Education Ministry is working hand-in-hand with CBSE leadership to track data logs from the ongoing re-evaluation and verification window. Officials are monitoring the final corrected metrics to evaluate if systemic glitches contributed to the noticeable 3.19% drop in this year's overall Class 12 pass percentage (which hit a multi-year low of 85.20%).
The Education Ministry is monitoring outcomes closely. However, senior officials have denied any systemic failure, calling the viral social media posts "isolated cases that were amplified."