Students and parents outside the Council of Higher Secondary Education office in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, June 4: Authorities at the Council of Higher Secondary Education today said that they did not find any case of single-digit discrepancy in the 2,500-odd applications received yesterday.

By single-digit discrepancy, the council means cases in which a student has more than 70 per cent marks in all subjects except one or two where he or she has scored a single-digit mark.

“There were no cases of single digit discrepancy in any of the answer sheets received yesterday,” said Basudeb Chattoi, chairman of the council.

Even today, thousands of students braved the scorching sun and queued up at the council office to apply for rechecking at four counters.

The council chairman, however, said that the rush was because there was a “rumour” of “erroneous evaluation” “According to the general procedure of council, students can apply within the next 30 days. There is absolutely no need to rush in here in the hot sun. Students can also apply at three other zonal offices (Sambalpur, Berhampur and Baripada),” Chattoi said.

Higher education secretary Gagan Dhal said that the evaluators for CBSE exams were the same for years and hence there was very little possibility of any major goof up barring a few “human errors” here and there.

“Last year, too, we received 12,000 applications for rechecking. This must be viewed as a normal thing when more than 3.5 lakh students are appearing for the exams,” Dhal said.

However, aggrieved students and their parents continued to complain about the “ridiculously low marks” in subjects such as mathematics, biology, physics and chemistry. Students also complained that the helpline numbers were not functioning.

Members of the ABVP and BJP Yuva Morcha protested outside the council office against the faulty evaluation and demanded the resignation of the higher education minister and the council chairman. The protesters also had a mild scuffle with the police. Higher education minister Pradeep Panigrahi said: “Although it has been hardly 10 days of my joining the office, I will take the moral responsibility of the unfortunate episode. However, it has come to our notice that the matter is not as it appears. None of the 2,500 applications filed yesterday were found with single-digit discrepancy.”