While the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is planning to penalize on-screen marking (OSM) service provider, Coempt Edu Teck, after issues in the evaluation of answer sheets for Class 12, the board may not be able to blacklist the company as the contract no longer gives it that power.
The Hyderabad-based company is likely to face financial penalties under provisions laid out in a tender document issued in August 2025, HT reported. The tender, which was floated on August 28, stipulated a set of escalating penalties linked to the severity of the lapses and the time it would take to remedy them.
However, a corrigendum issued on 20 September 2025 removed key references to “blacklisting” from this tender document prior to the contract award to Coempt Edu Teck on 5 December.
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How did CBSE lose the ability to blacklist a company?
The August 2025 tender included a note stating: “The issue will be placed before the Commission as decided by CBSE. The Commission may send show cause notice for forfeiture of PBG (Performance Bank Guarantee), blacklisting and termination of the contract.”
The September Correction amended this provision to read as follows: “The Commission may serve a show cause notice to forfeit PBG and terminate the contract.”
Another clause in the August tender read: “If any of the ‘other errors’ are repeated by the bidder, CBSE reserves the right to forfeit the security deposit, blacklist and terminate the contract.”
The correction has revised this provision by removing the blacklist requirement. The revised version states: “If any of the ‘other errors’ are repeated by the bidder, CBSE reserves the right to forfeit the security deposit and terminate the contract.”
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As a result, while the CBSE can still impose financial penalties, confiscate security deposits, or terminate the contract, the tender document in its final form contains no provisions enabling the board to blacklist the company for the alleged lapses.
How will sanctions be imposed?
Under the contract, corrective measures must be taken for each identified error, otherwise a penalty of Rs $1 lakh will be charged for every 15 minutes of delay outside the schedule specified by CBSE.
Likewise, delay in submitting the root cause analysis and corrective action plan attracts a penalty $The report said: 1,000 for every 60 minutes of delay.
The contract also stipulates a penalty amount $5,000 per 60 minutes delay in providing on-site support, onboarding assistance, training manuals, manual documents and user guides required for smooth running of CBSE operations.
(With inputs from HT’s Sanjay Maurya)
