Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday took a swipe at the Modi government and CBSE, using the term “pickpockets”, over students being charged money to get their answer sheets checked correctly. He said that when education is “treated not as a service but as a business, errors are not corrected but multiplied".
Sharing a snippet of his conversation with some students on X, Gandhi said that students are having to pay for CBSE's mistakes.
“Beware of pickpockets — today they're sitting inside CBSE. If marks come out wrong due to CBSE's mistake, what do you get? A bill: Digital scan copy: ₹100/subject, Re-totalling: ₹100/paper, Re-evaluation: ₹25/question,” he said, originally posting in Hindi.
“A child might have to shell out up to ₹2,000 just to get their own answer sheet properly checked. Think about it: when 4 lakh kids have filed such applications, how much CBSE is raking in,” he added.
“When scanning was done with a phone, wrong marking is a given. And the child is footing the bill to get it fixed. The mistake is CBSE's. The punishment is the child's. The earnings are the government's,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“When scanning was done with a phone, wrong marking is a given. And the child is footing the bill to get it fixed. The mistake is CBSE's. The punishment is the child's. The earnings are the government's,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}How is the revaluation process done?
A student speaking to Gandhi in the video explained the process of getting an answer sheet re-evaluated and the stages at which students have to pay.
He said that if a student believes they deserve more marks, they can apply for re-evaluation. However, the first step is to apply for a digital scanned copy of the answer sheet.
“And for that you have to pay?” Gandhi asked.
“Yes, ₹100 per subject,” the student replied.
The student further explained that after receiving the scanned copy, one has to identify where marks may have been missed and justify why additional marks should have been awarded but were not given by CBSE or the evaluator.
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He added that students must then apply for re-totalling. Even if they believe there is no issue with the totalling, they still have to pay ₹100 for the process.
After that, students have to pay ₹25 per question for re-evaluation. Depending on the number of questions they want reviewed, the amount payable increases accordingly.
“If evaluation is not happening properly, why do I have to give money for re-evaluation?” the student said.
CBSE says fee is refunded if re-evaluation leads to increase in marks.
‘Fraud’, says Gandhi
Earlier on Sunday, Gandhi had attacked CBSE and the government for compromising the evaluation process of answer sheets for the Class 12 examinations, alleging that changes in tender specifications led to answer sheets being scanned using mobile phones.
"CBSE's May 2025 tender required answer sheets to be scanned with automatic robotic scanners, spines preserved, at a minimum of 300 DPI. The tender reissued in August quietly removed all of it. 'Scanners' became generic. The resolution dropped to 200 DPI," Gandhi said.
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He also claimed that answer sheets had been scanned using mobile phones.
"Now we know what that meant in practice. It has been exposed that COEMPT scanned the answer sheets using mobile phones. The blurred copies, the missing pages, the unscanned books -- they are not 'errors.' They are the predictable outcome of a contract written to fit a vendor," Gandhi alleged, calling it a “fraud.”
Why is CBSE under scanner?
The controversy largely centers around claims by students that the scanned copies of answer sheets uploaded by CBSE did not match their handwriting, triggering concerns over possible answer-sheet mismatches in the digital evaluation system. OSM system introduced by CBSE for class 12 exam results starting 2026 was also criticised.