Court allows eight-year-old to sit for secondary exam

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court allowed an eight-year-old child prodigy to appear for the annual high school certificate examination begining on Wednesday.

The division bench of Justices I M Quddusi and A K Samantaray, in an interim order, directed Orissa's Board of Secondary Education (BOSE) to make all arrangements for Millennium Bismay to write the papers at the Secondary Board High School Centre in Cuttack.

The boy had been denied permission to appear for the tests by the board and the state government on the plea that the Orissa Secondary Examination Act does not allow a student aged less than 14 years to sit for the examination.

The court directed that the boy's result will not be published pending final disposal of the petition.

Bismay earlier met the chief minister and mass education minister in the hope that the state would allow him to appear for the examination. But the government maintained that he would have to wait till he turned 14.

Finding no way out, Bismay moved the High Court in December last year to seek justice.

Reacting to the order, Bismay's counsel Ashok Kumar Mohapatra said it is high time that lawmakers made some provisions for gifted children.

Born on October 13, 1998, Bismay showed exceptional memory power at the age of two. By the time he turned five, he completed the course for the seventh standard and claimed to be ready for the high school certificate examination when he was seven.