Class-12 student trolled, called 'Pakistani' after flagging CBSE's answer-sheet mismatch
What's the story
A Class 12 student from Delhi, Vedant Shrivastava, was abused and trolled online after he flagged a discrepancy in the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) On-Screen Marking (OSM) system. The controversy started after Shrivastava received unexpectedly low marks in his Physics board exam, prompting him to request scanned copies of his answer sheets. When he received the documents, he alleged that the Physics answer sheet attached to his roll number did not belong to him.
Post
'I studied for an entire year'
He brought up the discrepancy in a post on X, uploading side-by-side screenshots of the scripts from his English and Computer Science answer sheets to prove that the handwriting on the Physics paper was not his. "I studied for an entire year. I sacrificed sleep, peace of mind, outings, everything for these exams. And now I don't even know whether my actual Physics paper was checked. Do students really deserve this?" he wrote in a post on X.
Social media storm
Online trolling
After Shrivastava's post went viral, he was subjected to online trolling and abuse. Some social media users accused him of trying to defame CBSE and questioned his nationality based on his X profile location showing "South Asia." Among those who made such remarks was Doordarshan News journalist Ashok Shrivastav, who later apologized. At the same time, Shrivastava received support from figures like Rahul Gandhi. "Instead of help, he got abuse - BJP's IT cell branded him 'Anti-National,'....'Soros agent'," Gandhi said.
Twitter Post
Check out student's full post
I am a CBSE Class 12 student.
— VEDANT (@VEDANTSHRIV17) May 23, 2026
After receiving unexpectedly low marks in Physics, we applied for photocopies of my answer sheets through the CBSE reevaluation process.
Today we received the copies.
And I am shattered because the Physics answer sheet uploaded by CBSE is not mine
Official apology
CBSE promises to revise marks
On Monday, the CBSE acknowledged the mismatch and promised to revise his marks. A senior CBSE official confirmed that a technical error had led to the uploading of an incorrect scanned copy against his roll number but declined to elaborate why the mix-up happened. "We communicated to Vedant Shrivastava today and have sent the correct answer copy to him on his email. His marks will be updated accordingly," the official said on condition of anonymity.
System scrutiny
Overall Class 12 pass percentage fell to 85.20%
The board is under scrutiny for its OSM system after several students reported issues like blurry scans and missing pages. The OSM system was introduced to reduce human error and improve transparency in evaluations after Class 12 exam, which saw pass percentage drop by 3.19% points to 85.20%. Following criticism, CBSE opened a portal where students could access scanned copies of their evaluated answer sheets. But objections persisted, with students claiming the uploaded answer books did not match their handwriting.