KIRITKUMAR BHOGILAL SHAH Vs. DEESA MUNICIPALITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE petitions under Article -226 of the Constitution of India have been preferred, praying for the issuance of a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction to the respondent -Deesa Municipality, directing it to enter the date of birth of the petitioners in the Register of Births and Deaths and, thereafter, to issue Birth Certificates to the petitioners. Further, the petitioners have, in the alternative, prayed that the orders dated 15.03.2014, passed by the learned Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Deesa, in Criminal Misc. Applications Nos. 16/2014 and 17/2014, be quashed.

(2.) AS similar issues of fact and law arise in both these petitions, with the consent of learned counsel for the respective parties, they are being heard and decided finally, by a common order. For the sake of convenience, the facts as obtaining in Special Civil Application No. 5782/2014 shall be referred to, which are as follows.

(3.) MR . Premal R. Joshi, learned advocate for the petitioner has submitted that the present cases are not such where no material is available on record regarding the date of birth of the petitioners. The petitioners are in possession of the Certificate issued by the Gujarat Secondary School Examination Board, School Leaving Certificate, Birth Certificate issued by the School, as well as documents such as Nationality Domicile, Passport and Driving Licence, all of which indicate that the date of birth of the petitioner in Special Civil Application No. 5782/2014 is 24.02.1945 and the date of birth of the petitioner in Special Civil Application No. 5784/2014 is 09.02.1943. There is no discrepancy in the dates of birth in any of these documents. That, it is not the fault of the petitioners if the respondent -Municipality is unable to locate the record pertaining to the years 1943 and 1945. The petitioner in Special Civil Application No. 5782/2014 is ready and willing to furnish the affidavit of his elder brother, aged 71 years, who is the only person older to him in the family, who is also the petitioner in Special Civil Application No. 5784/2014, in addition to all other records before the respondent -Municipality, which may be directed to consider the same and pass appropriate order entering the date of birth of the petitioners in the Register of Births and Deaths.