The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has disaffiliated 20 schools, five of them in Delhi, for enrolling dummy students and ineligible candidates, its secretary Himanshu Gupta said on Friday.

The board has also downgraded affiliation of three schools.

"Pursuant to the surprise inspection conducted in CBSE schools across the country to check whether the schools are running as per the provisions and norms contained in affiliation and examination bye-laws, it was found that some schools were committing various malpractices of presenting dummy students, ineligible candidates and not maintained records properly," Gupta said.

"After thorough inquiry, it has been decided to disaffiliate 20 schools and downgrade three schools," he added.

Five of the disaffiliated schools are in Delhi, three in Uttar Pradesh, two each in Kerala, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Dehradun, Assam and Madhya Pradesh.

The schools with downgraded affiliation are in Delhi, Punjab and Assam.

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