IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.18381 of 2025 ======================================================

1. Sameer Raj @ Sameer Raj Sinha, Son of Sh. Arun Kumar Sinha, Resident of

63-C/C, South of Post Office Building, Mohalla- Peoples Co-operative Colony, Post Office- Lohia Nagar, District- Patna- 800020, under guardianship of his father.

2. Arun Kumar Sinha, Son of Late Yogeshwar Prasad Sinha, Resident of 63-

C/C, South of Post Office Building, Mohalla- Peoples Co-operative Colony, Post Office- Lohia Nagar, District- Patna- 800020.

... ... Petitioner/s Versus

1. The Union of India through the Secretary (School of Education and Literacy), Ministry of Human Resource Department, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi.

2. The State of Bihar, through the Additional Chief Secretary, Education Department, New Secretariat, Patna.

3. The Director, Secondary Education, Education Department, New Secretariat, Patna.

4. The Chairman, Central Board of Secondary Education, Shiksha Kendra, 2, Community Centre, Preet Vihar, New Delhi.

5. The Secretary, Central Board of Secondary Education, Shiksha Kendra, 2, Community Centre, Preet Vihar, New Delhi.

6. Regional Officer, Central Board of Secondary Education, Regional Office, Ambica Complex, Behind SBI Colony, Near Brahmsthan, Sheikhpura, Raja Bazar, Bailey Road, Patna-800014.

7. B.D. Public School, Buddha Colony, Patna through its Director Mr. S.B.

Rai.

... ... Respondent/s ======================================================

Appearance :

For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Y. C. Verma, Sr. Advocate Ms. Priyanka Singh, Advocate For the CBSC : Mr. Vinay Krishna Tripathy, Advocate For the State : Mr. Sanjay Kumar, AC to AAG-4 ======================================================

CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE HARISH KUMAR

ORAL JUDGMENT

Date : 27-01-2026 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 Class- IX 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 Mid- Term 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 By- laws 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 t