CBSE vs Vedant Shrivastava: Class 12 student rejects board’s ‘blatant lie’ claim

Vedant Shrivastava, a class 12 student, is still at a crossroads with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), weeks after his answer sheet became the subject of the board's On-Screen Marking (OSM) controversy.

After the CBSE countered Shrivastava, who said he had reapplied for evaluation, the class 12 student claimed that his overall marks had increased by only two, one in Maths and one in Computer Science. However, the board said his Physics score had also increased by 9 marks and dismissed his claims of irregularities, calling them a ‘blatant lie’.

The student in a social media post wrote, “Hello cbseindia29, the 9 marks increase in physics that you are talking about did not get increased through the process of re-evaluation, they are my true marks, which you guys didn't give me earlier because you exchanged my answer sheet, and 2 marks were increased, 1 mark each in cs and Maths.”

His remarks followed the education board's dismissal of his claims. Earlier on 28 June, he posted a video and said, "I got my re-evaluation results. I had applied for 11 questions and only got two marks increased in my re-evaluation results."

CBSE vs Vedant Shrivastava

News agency ANI reported that the CBSE later dismissed Shrivastava's claims of irregularities in revaluation results, calling them "factually incorrect" and a "blatant lie." The board also noted that 99.7 per cent of the applications received for revaluation after the declaration of the Class 12 results have been processed, and those pending are in the final stages of review.

Responding to the education board's claim, Shrivastava, in another post, wrote, “How is this a blatant lie? The 9 marks increase in physics does not happen after the opening of the re-evaluation portal, and if the answer sheet of physics was not mine, how were the marks given on that answer sheet my marks?”

The Class 12 student had earlier drawn attention after posting on X in May, alleging that his original Physics answer sheet had been replaced with another student's. The claim sparked an online controversy over alleged irregularities in the evaluation of CBSE Class 12 answer sheets.

Social media users react

Following Shrivastava's post, several social media users reacted to the ongoing tussle between the two. Several users blamed the central board and accused it of doing similar acts in the past. While one user wrote, "No point in speaking logic with them. They just want to blindly defend their mistakes and hide the misdeeds," another wrote, "officials are serial offenders and blatant liars!

A third user accused the education agency of gaslighting the student by hiding their own mistakes.

Who is Vedant Shrivastava?

Vedant Shrivastava had recently found himself at the centre of a controversy after raising concerns about an alleged mix-up involving his Physics answer sheet. On 13 May, the CBSE declared the Class 12 results and six days later, Vedant said he had received unexpectedly low marks in Physics. He claimed that after obtaining scanned copies of his answer sheets, he discovered that the Physics paper linked to his roll number was not his.

In a post on X on 23 May, he wrote, “I studied for an entire year. I sacrificed sleep, peace of mind, outings, and everything for these exams. And now I don’t even know whether my actual Physics paper was checked. Do students really deserve this?”

His post surfaced at a time when several students flagged discrepancies with the OSM evaluation system. Shrivastava's post became a subject of online trolling and abuse, with some users labelling him “anti-national” and “Pakistani”.

(With agency inputs)