Bhubaneswar: An eight-year-old boy in Orissa on Tuesday got state high court approval to appear for Class 10 board examinations beginning on Wednesday.
Millennium Bismay, a resident of Sarcha village in Balasore district, 230 km from Bhubaneswar, had moved the court through his uncle Niranjan Behera after the Orissa Board of Secondary Education (BSE) last year rejected his application seeking permission to write the annual High School Certificate examination.
The boy, born on October 31, 1998 and the son of schoolteachers, claims to have extraordinary memory powers.
He has qualified in a pre-test examination conducted by a local high school and also secured 62 per cent marks in a subject competency test conducted by BSE last year.
However, BSE, which conducts the Class 10 board examinations, denied him permission to appear for them, citing his age - less than 14 years - as reason.
In its affidavit, it told the court that the boy was not psychologically ready for such an achievement.
"Although the boy secured 62 per cent in the subject competence test, his psychological performance does not indicate any motivational maturity as expected from a 14-year-old boy," BSE said.
A division bench of the Orissa High Court comprising judges A.K. Samantray and I M Quddusi on Tuesday directed the state government and BSE to allow the boy to sit for the examination, Millennium's lawyer Ashok Mohapatra said.
After the court's direction, BSE secretary Minaketana Pani said the board would allow the boy entry at an examination centre in Cuttack, 26 km from Bhubaneswar.
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