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High Court rejects Bismay’s plea

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday refused permission to publish the matriculation examination result of eight-year-old wonder kid Millennium Bismay. The court dismissed a petition in this regard on the ground that the boy is “under age” and the rules governing the State Board of Secondary Education do not allow a candidate below 14 years to appear for the examination.

The court in an interim order in March had allowed Bismay to sit for the examination after his plea was rejected by the State government. But the court had restrained the board authorities from publishing his results without the leave of the court. Accordingly, his result was withheld when the BSE declared the results on May 29.

The boy’s uncle Niranjan Behera again moved the court in June urging it to vacate the stay on the boy’s result. A Division Bench dismissed the petition on Tuesday indicating that the boy cannot be a matriculate until he attends the prescribed age of 14. Rejecting the petition, the Bench said that the boy does not fit into any of the categories of candidates for the matriculation examination conducted by the State Board as he has not received any formal education. “Moreover, we cannot allow the boy’s results to be published on humanitarian grounds because the Rules governing the Board cannot be superseded,” the Bench said.

His counsel Ashok Mohapatra however, said that the verdict would be challenged in the Supreme Court. With a hope to create a record, Bismay, the only child of a teacher couple from Balasore having tremendous memory power, learnt the entire syllabus of class X at a tender age of six and had approached the government to allow him to sit for the matriculation examination in 2006. But he was not allowed. He again approached the government in 2007. This time the government asked the BSE to conduct a test to ascertain his potentiality. Although the boy secured 62 per cent in the test, the government refused him permission following which he approached the court.

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