Amid CBSE’s administrative failures, Sarthak Sidhant, a 17-year-old student, evaluated CBSE’s on-screen marking system and allegedly found loopholes by which a parliamentary panel was intrigued and summoned the youngster to present his findings and express his concerns. He was called to present before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Youth, Children, and Sports.
The committee scrutinized the use of the OSM (on-screen marking) programme in Class 12 CBSE Examinations, with the concerns expressed by the students taken into consideration. Following Sarthak’s presentation, the head of the panel, Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, stated that the committee will now await the response of CBSE on the matter. The panel consists of 21 MPs from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha across parties. It is benched by the Congress MP, and the board acknowledged the issues raised on the OSM system and also on the three-language formula in Classes 9 and 10.
However, the panel doesn’t hold the power to punish CBSE if it is found guilty but can surely convey the cause to higher authorities and demand accountability. Any failure from officials to cooperate or provide accurate evidence can be prosecuted as a Breach of Privilege of Parliament under the rules.
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Sarthak Sidhant is the reason who triggered an extensive panel to reflect on the existing system. Sarthak published a blog mentioning his study and review of tender documents extracted from the Central Public Procurement Portal. There were many irregularities spotted by the young eyes, and he alleged that CBSE rewrote some rules and that every change in the rules was seen to be in favor of a third-party source, Coempt EduTeck. He alleged that the education board modified eligibility and technical requirements across three tender rounds, all of which aided Coempt EduTeck. He started with, “There were at least 15 discrepancies, as per my blog. I would like to highlight three or four of them. Let me give a background about Coempt. It was known as Globarena, and they have a very shady background. 23 students killed themselves because of Coempt.” Later, he went on to list the discrepancies, beginning with the erasure of the poor performance clause. He alleged that three clauses were wiped off from the new rules and pointed out a logical fallacy by saying, “In the earlier RFP, there was a clause called ‘blacklisted earlier’, whereas in the new RFP, it was changed to ‘blacklisted currently’. Why would the board want a service provider which was blacklisted earlier?”
17-year-old Sarthak Sidhant has exposed how CBSE manipulated its own selection process to benefit COEMPT, using CBSE’s own documents.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 29, 2026
The details in his blog reveal how CBSE changed the RFP to unduly benefit COEMPT, at the cost of TCS.
He has revealed the hollowness of… https://t.co/g7YSYIxDrh
His fearless mentions grabbed the attention of the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who is following this case closely and is in support of the child. CBSE and Coempt EduTeck have yet to issue a formal rebuttal to these specific allegations.