YOOSUF KUNJU Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner's application for correction of his date of birth in service records was rejected earlier as per Ext. P4 produced along with C.M.P. No. 25860/98. The reason stated therein was as follows:

(2.) In Ext. P1, it was found that the petitioner had already applied for correction of date of birth in service records as early as on 2.8.85. At that time, the procedure for correction of date of birth enabled any incumbent in government service to apply for such correction in service records before two years of the date of retirement as per the existing entry. Therefore, the application submitted by the petitioner on 2.8.85 was perfectly within the time frame at that point of time. Therefore, the Government cannot, on the basis of the orders then stood governing the issue and on the basis of Ext. P1 judgment, now say that the application was belated. Therefore, the second finding in Ext. P3 to reject the application that it is time barred, is not correct.

(3.) True, the petitioner might not have obtained the correction of date of birth in school records at that time. Even independently of the same, petitioner was free to submit application for correction of date of birth in service records without corresponding correction in the school records. It was insisted that the corrected school records shall also accompany the application for correction of date of birth in service records only as per government order dated 30.12.91. When the application dated 2.8.85 was submitted by the petitioner, there was no such insistence. In the decision reported in Prabhakaran Nair v. State of Kerala ( 1990 (1) KLT 858 ) it was held that,