A 17-year-old student on Tuesday appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee detailing alleged irregularities in CBSE’s on-screen marking (OSM) system. It is the same panel that warned, in the wake of the 2024 NEET-UG leak, that the NTA’s performance “did not inspire confidence” – a warning that went unheeded before this year’s medical admission paper was also leaked, and which was dismissed by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan after the leak as well.
Sarthak Siddhant, who says he was influenced by the OSM, presented his findings at the Parliament House Annex to members of the Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports Affairs Committee. This committee is reviewing the use of OSM in CBSE Class 12 examinations, among others.
Siddhant, who published his book He made his findings on his website after reviewing the tender documents on the central public procurement portal and made a presentation to the committee, news agency PTI reported.
He claims that the CBSE has rewritten its bidding rules in its favour Coempt EduTeck, the company that runs the OSM system. He says a comparison of tender documents revealed “at least 15 inconsistencies”, claiming that clauses relating to blacklisting, financial qualifications and eligibility had been changed across successive tenders.
He made clear that he was not opposed to OSM itself, but said it needed broader testing and pilots before it could be rolled out.
Both CBSE and Coempt EduTeck denied any irregularities in the tender, with the board saying the work had been duly awarded to the lowest bidder as per rules.
Why it matters to government
This student’s testimony is now part of a process that the government cannot technically reject outright, although the parliamentary committee has no punitive power.
The commission has legal powers to demand accountability, such as subpoenaing officials to testify under oath and requesting the production of internal records. The rules state that any failure to cooperate or provide accurate evidence can be prosecuted as an abuse of the privileges of Parliament. Neither the Ministry nor CBSE can reject its findings outright, and must submit an Action Taken Report documenting how each defect was remedied, or explaining why this was not done.
What did he say after NEET leak
The appearance of Sarthak Siddhant and the new spotlight on the House committee also points to its earlier recommendations.
In its report submitted in December 2025, the committee, headed by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, recorded that at least five out of 14 major inspections conducted by the NTA in 2024 faced major problems. UGC-NET, CSIR-NET and NEET-PG were postponed, NEET-UG faced allegations of paper leakage, and CUET results were delayed.
She stated that the agency’s performance did not inspire confidence and urged it to “get its act together quickly.” Its recommendations urged greater emphasis on the existing pen-and-paper tests, citing the CBSE and UPSC exams as models that have remained leak-proof for years, and said computer-based tests, if used, should only be conducted in government-controlled centres.
The parliamentary committee also recommended that NTA funds be used to build internal capacity to conduct testing itself, or to enhance vendor monitoring.
However, after this year’s NEET-UG was leaked again, Minister Pradhan, in a press conference on May 15, said he would not act on these findings.
He said, “I do not want to follow the observations of the parliamentary committee,” adding, “Members of the opposition are in the parliamentary committee, and you know better than me how to prepare reports.” He also said that he “will follow the Radhakrishnan Committee” set up by the government separately.
The Parliamentary Committee is a 31-member cross-party committee, including 21 MPs from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. Although it is currently headed by a member of Congress, it does not have an opposition majority. The BJP-led NDA has a majority vote, with the BJP being the largest single bloc with 15 seats compared to 12 seats held by all opposition parties.
What about the Radhakrishnan Commission?
The Radhakrishnan Committee – officially the High-Level Committee of Experts (HLCE) – was set up by the Education Ministry in June 2024 after the NEET-UG dropout that year.
Headed by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan, it consulted states, police, technology experts, student groups and global testing agencies, and submitted a report in October 2024 with 101 recommendations.
As for implementation, in affidavits filed before the Supreme Court last week, NTA and Radhakrishnan said 60 recommendations were short-term measures intended for implementation during the 2025-2026 session. Most of these measures have been implemented, with medium and long-term security features implemented in phases at present, the affidavit said.
The Radhakrishnan Committee’s recommendations were not very different from those of the Parliamentary Committee, although the former mainly called for computer-based testing while the latter favored pen and paper.
Whether future NEET exams should move to computer-based mode or remain on paper like this year is a decision that the government said remains open.
Both groups wanted NTA to be less dependent on private agencies and stronger internally.
“Either there is something wrong with the original recommendation or there is no proper implementation,” the Supreme Court questioned how the leak could happen again this year despite the Radhakrishnan-led high-level committee being set up after 2024.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that “the honorable Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is personally supervising” the reconduct. The court has now sought a fresh affidavit on how the Center will build a stable structure for conducting the national examinations.
Oppn asks why the House committee was ignored
Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has demanded the dismissal of Minister Pradhan, accusing the minister of betraying NEET aspirants and “insulting” Parliament by rejecting the parliamentary committee’s report.
Gandhi also publicly praised the youth, especially Generation Z, for raising their voice about failure in exams. When he met some of them, he ridiculed the suggestion by BJP supporters that youth protests over exam-related issues were a “global conspiracy to destabilize India”.
Meanwhile, Minister Pradhan said he took “full responsibility” for the agitation and promised that there would be no further lapses.
Parliamentary committee chairman Digvijaya Singh pointed out this week that the Solicitor General had told the Supreme Court that Prime Minister Modi had taken “personal” responsibility for the retake of the NEET exam on June 21. “So, if the information leaks again, the Prime Minister’s resignation must be demanded,” Singh said.
The committee continues to hold its meetings, most recently with Sarthak Siddhant, a 17-year-old whistleblower.
Sarthak Siddhant is One of three teenagers who prominently raised questions about the efficiency and fairness of exam systems. The other two are Vedant Shrivastava, 17, who got the CBSE answer sheet wrong, and Nisarja Adhikari, 19, who hacked the CBSE OSM portal to highlight the vulnerabilities.
All this has been combined into one demand by the Kokroch Janta Party, an online movement seeking Pradhan’s removal and planning a Jantar Mantar protest on June 6.
