Unless There Is Clinching Proof, Date Of Birth Cannot Be Corrected In Service Records At Fag End Of Career: Kerala High Court
The Kerala High Court has observed that correction of date of birth in service records cannot be done at the fag end of a career unless there is clinching proof and unimpeachable evidence to show that the date was entered wrongfully.
The Court set aside the order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (‘CAT’) which allowed the correction of the Applicant-respondent’s date of birth in the records.
The Division Bench of Justice Amit Rawal and Justice Easwaran S. observed, “The ratio culled out from the said decisions is that the courts/tribunals should not entertain the request from the employee for correction of date of birth in service records at the fag end of the career. However, this rule is not without exception. Unless there is clinching proof and unimpeachable evidence to show the date of birth of an employee has been wrongly entered in his service record, and a denial of permission to correct the said record would tantamount to denial of justice, the courts have permitted such corrections.”
SCGC R.V. Sreejith appeared for the Petitioners whereas Advocate M.P. Krishnan Nair appeared for the Respondent.
The Applicant-Respondent entered service as an Engineering Assistant, and at the time of his appointment, the date of birth entered in the service records as per the entries was different than his actual date of birth. He approached the State Government for correction of his date of birth, which was accepted and changed. But when he approached the All India Radio and later India’s Public Service Broadcaster Directorate General, All India Radio, his representation for correction of the date of birth there was rejected.
The Court held, “It is now settled law that the correction of date of birth in the service records cannot be claimed as a matter of right. It has been held on numerous occasions by the Supreme Court as well as by the High Courts that belated claim for correction of the date of birth cannot be entertained by the courts.”
The Court also noted that the application for correction of date of birth was given in the year 2013 and the decision to reject the same was taken in the year 2015. But, since the Original Application was filed only in the year 2022 and the applicant was due to retire in 2024, the Court stated that it became clear that he had approached the Tribunal at the fag end of his career.
The Court noted, “At the time of entering service, his date of birth recorded was 01.06.1964. The request for correction of date of birth in the SSLC Book was ordered on 27.06.2007 and the same was corrected on 13.01.2012. There is no explanation as to the delay which occurred between 2007 to 2012. Even assuming that the said period of delay could have been excluded, even then, the applicant’s claim for correction of date of birth in the service records could not have been entertained by the authorities. The respondent/applicant had also not entertained all the steps he had to undertake to have an expeditious issuance of the corrected SSLC Book after Annexure-A3 order.”
The Court, in this regard, referred to the judgments in State of UP v. Shiv Narain Upadhyaya (2005), State of Maharashtra and another v. Gorakhnath Sitaram Kamble & Others (2010 SC), Punjab and Haryana High Court V. Megh Raj Garg(2010 SC) and Ravindran v. State of Kerala & Ors. (2000 Kerala HC).
Accordingly, the Court concluded that the Petitioners herein are entitled to succeed and set aside the order passed by the CAT, Ernakulam. Hence, the original application filed by the Respondent herein was dismissed.
Cause Title: Union of India and Ors. v. Sunny Joseph
Appearances:
Petitioners: SCGC R.V. Sreejith
Respondent: Advocates M.P. Krishnan Nair, Seema Krishnan and TD Susmith Kumar.
