S SELVAVINAYAGAM Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition relates to the revision of the date of birth of the petitioner in his service records from 10.10.1924 to 23.8.1926. As the petitioner"s attempt to have the age corrected in the service records proved of no avail, he has filed this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying for the issue of a writ of certiorarified mandamus for quashing the order of the first respondent in G.O.Rt.No.883 Food and Co-operation dated 3.9.1982 and for directions being issued to the respondents to correct the date of birth and thereby enable him to have the benefit of extended service till the date of superannuation as per the corrected age.

(2.) The petitioner joined Government Service on 19.11.1947. He date of birth was entered in the service register as 10.10.1924. In course of time the petitioner came to be promoted and posted as Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies. In the year 1967 the petitioner found that his date of birth is 23.8.1926 and not 10.10.1924 as had been wrongly entered in the service register. Therefore, he submitted an application on 28,7.1967 to the Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies Tiruchirapalli for alteration of date of birth in the service book. By proceedings dated 10.8.1967 the Joint Registrar rejected the application. - The petitioner submitted a further application on 6.9.1967 for reconsideration of his case. The Joint Registrar recommended the application to the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Madras and suggested that the petitioner"s application may be referred to the Board of Revenue for an enquiry being held. The recommendation was accepted and the Registrar of Co-operative Societies referred the case of the petitioner to the Board of Revenue for investigation. The Board of Revenue in turn referred the matter to the Collector of Tirunelveli. The Collector of Tirunelveli instituted an enquiry and the petitioner produced the relevant records before the enquiry officer. Before the enquiry proceedings were concluded, the Government issued a revised G.O. viz., G.O.Ms.No.2475, Public (Ser-vice-A) Department dated 27.10.1970 to the effect that as a matter of policy it has been decided that all applications for alteration of date of birth received from Government servants after a period of five years after they had entered service should be summarily rejected irrespective of the circumstances under which the delay to seek rectification of mistake had occurred. In view of this G.O. the petitioner"s application was rejected without the enquiry being completed and without Government going into the question whether the petitioner"s actual date of birth was 23.8.1926 and not 10.10.1924. The order of rejection was communicated to the petitioner on 9.11.1970. He preferred appeals to the Secretary of the concerned Department and the Chief Secretary to Government, but they were turned down.

(3.) Thereafter the Government passed another order viz., G.O.Ms.No.1288, Public (Services M) Department dated 21.4.1975. The Government Order stated that any application for alteration of date of birth should be supported by copies of the S.S.L.C.Book, School/College or University records, birth extracts from the records of Local Bodies etc. The order also empowered the Heads of Department to correct the date of birth in the service register based upon entries in the S.S.L.C book.