DAHIBEN C PATEL Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has approached this Court with the prayer that it be held and declared that the petitioner is entitled to have corrected her birth date in the service record from the incorrect birth date, '01.06.1944' recorded therein to correct birth date 10.10.1945 as recorded in the Birth and Death Register. In the alternative, the birth date, '01.06.1945' as recorded in the School Leaving Certificate and to have all the consequential benefits of continuity in service and salary and allowances and retirement benefits on that basis.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that the petitioner had joined the services as teacher in PTC College being Stree Adhyapan Mandir, Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad on 01.07.1973. Thereafter, she was appointed as Principal in another PTC College being Vanita Vishram Training College, Athwa Lines, Surat with effect from 21.02.1985, where she continued to serve till 31.10.2002. The case of the petitioner is that her date of birth according to the School Leaving Certificate, a copy of which is produced on the record of the case at page 10, Annexure 'A' (Colly.) issued by the school- Nai Talim Shala, Mogar, wherein she was admitted in Standard-I on 13.03.1952 is recorded as 01.06.1945. The petitioner has also produced a certificate issued by D.D. High School for Girls, Navsari wherein her date of birth is recorded as 01.06.1945 and has also produced a xerox copy of the duplicate School Leaving Certificate issued by Uttar Buniyadi Kanya Vidyalaya Vatsalyadham, Madhi depicting her date of birth to be 01.06.1945. It is the case of the petitioner that a mistake was committed by the Gujarat Secondary Education Board, Vadodara in recording her date of birth, which was recorded as, '01.06.1944' which formed the basis of the service record and that discrepancy she noticed only in the year 1995. She then made an application to the Gujarat Secondary Education Board, Vadodara which corrected the date of birth to be 01.06.1945 and an endorsement to that effect was made in the SSC Certificate of the petitioner. It is further the case of the petitioner that thereafter she made necessary correspondence with the Director of Primary Education, Gujarat State, Gandhinagar. One of the letters, dated 04.12.1997 is at Annexure 'D', pursuant to which the Director of Primary Education granted permission to make necessary correction in the service record by letter dated 05.10.1998 (Annexure 'F'). It is further the case of the petitioner that the petitioner being Principal in the College thought it fit to point out to the authorities that such correction can be made only after necessary permission is granted by the General Administration Department of the Government of Gujarat. Therefore, the matter was taken up with the General Administration Department, who in turn refused to grant such permission and communicated its decision by letter dated 14.06.2002 addressed to the Director of Primary Education who in turn by letter dated 11.10.2002 informed the petitioner about the same. In a letter dated 14.06.2002 of the General Administration Department, it was mentioned that the matter pertains to correction of date of birth and reliance is placed on various documents, but no reference is made to the entry made in the Birth and Death Register and there is no clarification in this regard. When this fact was communicated to the petitioner, the petitioner approached the local authorities and obtained relevant extract of Birth and Death Register of Village Mogar, a copy of which is produced at Annexure 'L' (Colly.). But then before the same could be taken into consideration the petitioner was retired from service with effect from 31.10.2002.

(3.) Mr.K.B. Pujara, the learned advocate for the petitioner strenuously contended that this is a case wherein from the convincing record it is established that the date of birth of the petitioner is 10.10.1945 (from the Birth and Death Register of Village Mogar) and in any case date of birth of the petitioner was recorded as 01.06.1945 in the School Leaving Certificate issued by the school where the petitioner was admitted in Standard-I. Therefore, the authorities-the General Administration Department has committed an error in not granting sanction to correct the date of birth of the petitioner. He relied upon a judgement of this Court (Coram: M.S. Shah, J.) in Special Civil Application No.8722 of 2000 dated 14.09.2000, wherein in para 4 a reference is made to three other decisions of this Court, the relevant part reads as under: