PATNA, India, Feb. 25 -- Patna High Court issued the following judgment on Jan. 26:

1. Heard Mr. Y. C. Verma, learned Senior Advocate for the petitioners and Mr. Vinay Krishna Tripathy, learned Advocate for the Central Board of Secondary Education and Mr. Sanjay Kumar, learned Advocate for the State.

2. This is the third round of litigation led by a student Sameer Raj @ Sameer Raj Sinha, who was duly admitted in B.D. Public School, Buddha Colony, Patna; a school duly affiliated with Central Board of Secondary Education (in short 'CBSE') on 13.04.2018 at the age of 5 years, 3 months and 25 days, in Class-IV. After having performed well in the successive classes, finally, the petitioner was promoted to ClassIX at the age of ten years and three months and was also allowed to appear in Pre-Mid Term of Class-X as well as MidTerm and Post Mid-Term Examination of Class-X. However, despite his best efforts and persuasion made to all the authorities regarding his academic excellence and outstanding performance to Scholastic areas, when he had not been allowed to appear in the Board Examination of All India Secondary School Examination and the registration was not done, he approached this Court through his guardian/father in C.W.J.C. No. 17241 of 2023 seeking a direction to the respondent authorities, specially C.B.S.E. to permit the petitioner no.1 to appear in the Board Examination of AISSE, 2025 and to direct the C.B.S.E. to allow/accept the registration of the petitioner no.1, irrespective of his age being less than 15 years.

3. The learned Court having taken note of the provisions prescribed in the Bihar Education Code and the Bylaws of the C.B.S.E. opined that a student below the age of 05 years cannot be admitted in Class-I and if a student is getting admission above Class-I, he shall be admitted in higher class at appropriate age meaning thereby above the age of 05 years. The Court further took note of Article 291 of the Code and observed that it starts with the word "ordinarily" as such, the age prescribed is meant for normal circumstances. If a student is child prodigy and has exceptional merit, in that case Article 291 of the Code may not be treated as absolute and in case of exceptional merit of a student he may be allowed to appear in the Board Examination even below the prescribed age. However, the Court finally observed that extraordinary intelligence / merit of such candidate can be tested by the Examining Body i.e. C.B.S.E. The permission to take the Board Examination for under age student can only be granted in exceptional circumstances for which C.B.S.E. is the best Judge. Hence liberty was granted to the petitioners to file a representation before the Chairman of the C.B.S.E. along with all relevant papers and the previous results of the petitioner no.1 within a stipulated period. The Chairman of the C.B.S.E. is directed to consider his case and if he is found exceptionally meritorious and the Chairman of the C.B.S.E. is satisfied, he may be allowed to participate in the Board Examination to be held in 2025.

4. In pursuance of the afore noted decision of this Court, a representation was filed before the Chairman of the C.B.S.E., however, the claim of the petitioner no.1 for allowing him to appear in Board Examination of C.B.S.E., 2025 came to be rejected and accordingly the representation of the petitioner stood disposed of.

5. The petitioners being dissatisfied with the order of the Chairman of the C.B.S.E. again approached this Court in C.W.J.C. No. 10321 of 2024 for identical prayer to allow the petitioner no.1 to appear in the Board Examination, besides questioning the legality of the order passed by the Chairman of the C.B.S.E.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://patnahighcourt.gov.in/viewjudgment/MTUjMTgzODEjMjAyNSMxI04=---ak1--9Z83nQDmsI=)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.