CHANDMONI MAJHIN Vs. COAL INDIA LTD. AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner was given employment in the Eastern Coalfields Limited (respondent No. 2) on the 22nd of July, 1992 on account of the death of her husband who was an employee, while in service. During his lifetime, the petitioner's husband had declared her date of birth as '1964'. His own date of birth, according to the records, was the 4th of October, 1959.

(2.) The petitioner's claim in this proceeding is that her date of birth has been wrongly determined as '02.02.1956' on the basis of a medical examination which was conducted perfunctorily/arbitrarily without following the rigours of the requisite Medical Jurisprudence, and only on the basis of her appearance and statement. She, therefore, claims that her date of birth ought to be rectified. She approached her employers for this purpose by way of her letter of application dated 19th May, 2010, but to no avail. Consequently, her Trade Union approached the competent Authorities for this purpose under the Industrial Disputes Act. But, the Government of India (represented by Respondent No. 10) did not consider the dispute fit for adjudication by its communication dated 6th February, 2014, which is Annexure -P8 to the writ petition.

(3.) The respondents have opposed the petitioner's claim by relying upon the entries recorded in the requisite 'B Form Register' in which the petitioner's date of birth has been noted as 2nd February, 1956, and the entry also bears the own LTI of the petitioner. It is, however, the case of the petitioner that she is an illiterate Tribal woman and, therefore, was not aware of the ramification of the entries made in the register.