HC asks wonder boy to wait till 14 to be a matriculate

Cuttack, Sep 19 (UNI) The Orissa High Court has ruled that wonder boy 'Millenium Bismay' will have to wait till the age of 14 years to be a matriculate.

A division bench of the court comprising Justices P K Tripathy and R N Biswal yesterday refused to vacate the stay on the publication of Bismay's high school certificate examination result while adjudicating a writ petition filed by his uncle N Behera.

Dismissing the petition the court said the eight-year-old boy was not eligible to appear for the matriculation examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Orissa as he was under age and had not received any formal education.

His result could not be ordered as the rules governing the Board of Secondary Education could not be superseded, the court observed.

As per the law, one has to be at least 14 years of age or should have passed the class VII to sit for the Matriculation exam.

However, the boy did not fulfill the criteria, the bench observed.

Born to a teacher couple from Balasore district in 1998, Bismaya had completed the syllabus for class X when he was only six due to exceptional memory.

In 2006, his father requested the state government to allow Bismay to appear for the matriculation exam, enabling him to be the youngest matriculate of the country but the permission was denied.

Next year the government was approached again which asked the BSE to conduct a test to judge his ability before allowing him to sit for the examination.

The boy moved the high court after the government did not allow him to sit in the examination despitehim securing 62 per cent marks in the test.

In an interim order the High Court directed the BSE to allow the boy to sit in the examination but asked the board not to publish his result till the final disposal of the case.

Bismay's uncle then moved the court seeking a stay on the verdict after the BSE withheld Bismay's result.

The judgment has come as a shock to the wonder kid who told the mediapersons here today that he would not go to college nor sit for any examination in future.

His counsel Ashok Mohapatra, however, hinted that the child prodigy would move the apex court against the verdict UNI