'Misleading': CBSE refutes claims on Coempt Edutech contract, says evaluation portal secure

NEW DELHI: Central Board of Secondary Education on Wednesday rejected allegations regarding the award of a contract to Coempt Edutech for the digital evaluation of answer books, calling the claims "misleading and not based on facts."Replying to Rahul Gandhi on X, CBSE said, "CBSE rejects the allegations regarding the award of contract to Coempt Edutech. It is erroneous, misleading and not based on facts. CBSE has followed the General Financial Rules protocols scrupulously in the awarding of the contract to the agency.”“CBSE floated the RFP for Digital Evaluation of Answer books for Board Exams 2026 on Central Public Procurement portal on 28.08.2025 and awarded the contract to the qualified bidder,” it added.Earlier in the day, Gandhi alleged "manipulation" in CBSE exam results and demanded an independent judicial probe and SIT investigation, claiming that the future of nearly 1.85 million students had been compromised due to alleged irregularities in the evaluation system.In a post shared on X, Gandhi wrote, "There has been a shocking manipulation in the CBSE exam results, leaving millions of children across the country and their parents in utter shock. And Mr Modi? As ever—no answers, no accountability, no shame."He further alleged that the company COEMPT, which was assigned responsibility for the system, had earlier operated under the name Globarena and was involved in a similar controversy in Telangana in 2019.Gandhi also questioned the awarding of the contract and alleged procedural lapses."Why was the CBSE contract given to COEMPT, and on whose orders? - Which rules and procedures were bypassed to hand this company the contract? - COEMPT was already mired in controversy under the name Globarena—why didn’t CBSE know about it? Why weren’t background checks carried out? - What exactly is the connection between COEMPT’s management and the Modi government?" he asked.The latest exchange comes a day after CBSE issued a statement refuting claims that its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system had been compromised. The Board said the URL circulating on social media was not linked to the actual evaluation portal but was only a testing site containing sample data."The Portal used for evaluation of answer-books bore a different URL, which has neither been compromised nor does it have the vulnerabilities indicated in the said social media post," CBSE had said, adding that no actual student data or marks were exposed.CBSE had also stated that the evaluation system has safeguards and grievance redressal mechanisms to ensure transparency and integrity in the assessment process. The Board noted that it had earlier corrected a typographical error in a social media post regarding the URL and reiterated that no security breach had occurred.