KISHOR SUKHADEO WALHEKAR Vs. STATE MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the learned counsel for the parties, this Petition is heard finally at the stage of admission.

(2.) The present Writ Petition filed by the Petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for directing the Respondents to decide his application dated 11th March, 2005 for correction of date of birth in the school records. It is the case of the Petitioner that his birth date is wrongly recorded in the school records and therefore he applied to the Head Master and Education Officer for correction of date of birth. He also submitted documentary evidence to support his case.

(3.) It is the case of the Petitioner that his birth date is recorded in school records as 10th January, 1984 whereas his correct birth date is 13th July, 1985. It is the case of the Petitioner that he belongs to the scheduled caste category i.e. Mang. His father is not highly qualified person and due to his less education, he has not taken any care to record the correct birth date in school. Petitioner says that he completed S.S.C. in the year 2000. At that time he was not aware about his wrong date of birth which was recorded in his school career. Petitioner was interested to participate in cricket team, therefore in December, 2003 he appeared before the selection committee at Beed. In December, 2003 he suspected that his birth date is wrong, therefore the Petitioner enquired with his mother and the mother informed the Petitioner that his birth date was recorded at Grampanchayat office Pithi. Therefore, the Petitioner approached the Grampanchayat, Pithi and also Block Development Officer, Patoda who is having custody of old record of birth and death register of Grampanchayat Pithi. On his application, Grampanchayat issued a birth certificate dated 22/1/2004 in which his birth date is shown as 13th July, 1985. On the basis of the said birth certificate, the Petitioner applied by his application dated 14th March, 2005 to the Respondent No.4 Head Master, Zilla Parishad High School, Pithi, Taluka-Patoda, Dist-Beed for correcting his birth date in school records. The Petitioner also made application dated 11th March, 2005 to the Respondent No.3 Education Officer (Secondary), Zilla Parishad Beed for correcting his birth date on the basis of birth certificate issued by Grampanchayat. Though he applied to Respondent No.3 on 11th March, 2005 there was no response from Respondent No.3, therefore the Petitioner was constrained to file aforesaid Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for direction to the Respondents to decide his application dated 11th March, 2005 for correction of date of birth in the school records.