The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education officials refused to extend the deadline for colleges across nine divisions to submit forms online, even as colleges requested for a second extension of dates. The board had already extended the dates earlier this month, by one week. The last date for submitting students’ forms online to appear for the Higher Secondary Examinations (HSC) was December 18.

In an attempt to go paperless, the Maharashtra State Board office had asked colleges all over the state to submit the application forms of candidates wanting to appear for the HSC in February 2014 online instead of doing so manually like previous years. The board tried the online form submission system on a pilot basis during the October 2013 HSC exams, but barely a few thousand candidates appeared for the examinations. This time, the number of candidates from the Mumbai division alone is 3,13,000 and the number of candidates from across all nine divisions of Maharashtra is approximately 13,11,000 .u00a0