A cyberattack on the CBSE revaluation portal caused fees to fluctuate randomly between Re 1 and Rs 69,420 per application — so India’s national school board brought in IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, the national digital infrastructure agency, and the Finance Minister to resolve the situation.
When CBSE opened its Class 12 revaluation portal in late May 2026, a malicious attack on its HDFC payment gateway caused fee displays of notable creativity: some students were charged Re 1, while others saw bills of Rs 67,000 to Rs 69,420. The higher figure is, for those fluent in Indian internet culture, a very specific number that does not typically appear in government notifications. Around 50 students managed to submit applications at the Re 1 rate before the board noticed the discrepancy. The emergency response involved IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, the Digital Infrastructure Corporation of India, and an urgent consultation between Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. CBSE’s solution was to slash revaluation fees by 85% for everyone and introduce a full-refund policy if marks improve — making the hackers inadvertently responsible for the most student-friendly fee reform in the board’s history. The corrected portal reopened June 1, accepting applications through June 6.