MOOSA Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) EXT. P14 is under challenge in this Original Petition. As the petitioner has failed to produce the Birth Certificate, his request for correction of date of birth in the records stand rejected by the Government. As matters stand now, as per the official records, the petitioner's date of birth is 7. 5. 1946. Sri. T. M. Abdul Latiff, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that in the matter of correction of clerical errors the standards adopted are different and the Government had omitted to bear in mind the above aspects. He refers to EXT. P15 which is a proforma of application for correction or alteration of date of birth. However, no orders drawing a distinction as between the two varieties of claims had been made available.

(2.) I had heard the learned Government Pleader. He opposes the Original Petition by pointing out that this Court had exercised the jurisdiction once by issuing a direction to the Government to consider the appeal filed by the petitioner and by Ext. P14 the Government had passed appropriate orders in the matter. It is also pointed out that on an earlier occasion also, by Ext. Pll, the request had been turned down. It was stressed that the petitioner has agitated the matter at the fag end of his service and such conduct has been severely deprecated by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. As such it is submitted that the writ petitioner deserves no relief.

(3.) IT will be unjust to treat such cases on par with other cases where claims are urged on extraneous materials. One cannot ignore authentic records, and still require the incumbent to produce birth certificate, which might or might not exist. IT may be asking for the impossible. Therefore, as far as the petitioner is concerned, the enquiry has to be confined as to whether the basic certificates produced by him showing his earliest recorded date are authentic. If they are genuine, he normally will be entitled to get the date appropriately corrected. I am fortified in making this observation, because Ext. PIS, the form prescribed by the Government, separately deals with the contingency of correction of clerical error.