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Why did the Central Board of Secondary Education remove the ‘blacklisting clause’ from the tender, a month after it was introduced? Hyderabad-based Coempt EduTeck was awarded the contract on December 5, 2025, after the provision was removed.
With the board mired in controversy over on-screen marking (OSM) errors, CNN-News18 has accessed the original 132-page tender document issued by the CBSE to firm in August. News18 reached out to CBSE, but was yet to get a reply at the time of publishing the report.
The OSM controversy and Coempt EduTeck
Coempt Eduteck Private Limitedis the Hyderabad-based educational technology and digital examination firm currently under intense national scrutiny for managing the CBSE’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for evaluating Class 12 board exam answer
sheets. The CBSE On-Screen Marking (OSM) controversy erupted after thousands of Class 12 students reported drastic discrepancies in their results following the board’s rollout of a digital evaluation system. Students alleged missing pages, blurry scanned answer sheets, unchecked answers, and mismatched handwriting.
Public anger surged when it was revealed that the contracted tech vendor, Coempt Eduteck (previously Globarena Technologies), had a highly controversial past involving allegations of result fiascos in other state exams.
What did the document state?
The original August 2025 CBSE tendercontained a provision allowing a committee to consider blacklisting, forfeiture of Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) and termination of contract in cases of serious lapses. Blacklisting clause was part of the original August 28, 2025 CBSE tender for digital scanning and e-evaluation of answer booklets.
On-Screen Marking Not The First Crisis For CBSE: 4 Times The Board Failed To Check Lapses
A corrigendum issued in September 2025 removed the blacklisting provision before the contract was awarded. After the corrigendum, the CBSE retained the power to impose financial penalties, forfeit deposits and terminate the contract, but the option to blacklist the vendor was removed.
The key question remains — Why was the blacklisting clause removed from the tender less than a month after it was introduced?
What did the final contract allow?
Under the final six-page contract, the vendorcan face steep financial penalties and even termination, but cannot be blacklisted.
The contract imposed a ₹1 lakh penalty for every 15-minute delay in resolving critical issues flagged by CBSE.
₹1 lakh penalty for every 60-minute delay applies for failure to submit a root-cause analysis and corrective action plan.
Agreement also allowed CBSE to forfeit security deposits and terminate the contract in serious cases.
CBSE can terminate the contract/MOU under conditions of repeated mistakes, uncured material breaches, or by mutual consent.
CBSE reserves the right to forfeit the bidder’s Security Deposit if errors categorized under “Other Mistakes” are repeated.
