Rahul Gandhi alleges CBSE answer sheets were scanned using mobile phones, calls it 'fraud'

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that CBSE answer sheets were scanned using mobile phones, claiming the practice compromised the evaluation process and affected lakhs of students.

In a post on X, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said it had been "exposed" that answer sheets were scanned using phones instead of the standards outlined in earlier tender specifications. He alleged that the outcome included blurred copies, missing pages and unscanned answer books.

"Now we know what that meant in practice. It has been exposed that COEMPT scanned the answer sheets using mobile phones. The blurred copies, the missing pages, the unscanned books - they are not “errors.” They are the predictable outcome of a contract written to fit a vendor," Gandhi said.

Calling the issue a "fraud", Gandhi alleged that every student whose marks were affected by evaluation errors had become a victim of the process.

The Congress MP linked the controversy to changes made in CBSE's tender conditions for scanning answer sheets.

According to Gandhi, a tender issued by CBSE in May 2025 required answer sheets to be scanned using automatic robotic scanners, with answer book spines preserved and images captured at a minimum resolution of 300 DPI.

However, he alleged that a revised tender issued in August removed those requirements. Gandhi claimed that the term "automatic robotic scanners" was replaced with generic references to scanners and that the minimum resolution requirement was reduced from 300 DPI to 200 DPI.

He argued that the alleged use of mobile phones for scanning answer sheets was a direct consequence of those changes.

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Gandhi questioned why the government had not responded to the allegations.

"This morning, the Prime Minister had time to speak about mangoes. He has not had time to speak about 18.5 lakh children whose answer sheets were scanned with phones. Dharmendra Pradhan ji still sits in office. Modi ji’s silence is no longer indifference. It is complicity," he said.

The allegations come amid growing scrutiny of CBSE over reports of technical issues linked to its post-result systems and concerns raised by students regarding evaluated answer sheets.

Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also attacked the Centre over the controversy, alleging that students raising concerns were being dismissed as "Deep State Agents" and "Pakistanis" instead of being heard. He claimed both CBSE students and NEET aspirants had suffered because of failures in the education sector.

With agency inputs