ANADHIR RANJAN PAUL Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is directed against the alleged premature retirement of the petitioner from service taking his date of birth as 12.04.1952 instead of 12.09.1957 claimed by the petitioner. There is no dispute that as per High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) Examination Certificate of 1972, the date of birth of the petitioner is 12.04.1952. However, the petitioner after passing HSLC examination in 1972 and issuance of the certificate claimed his date of birth as 1.2.09.1957 and to that effect his elder brother Shri Nihar Ranjan Paul had sworn an affidavit on 22.02.1978. The said affidavit was sworn in before the Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Silchar. The case projected is that since the petitioner was appointed is LDC-cum-Typist in the office of the Commandant Battali on Training Centre, Dergaon in 1983 and to be precise on 26.08.1983, had his date of birth calculated on the basis of the said affidavit as 12.09.1957 been not accepted, he would have been over aged for appointment in 1983. In this connection, the petitioner has shown his age on the date of appointment as 31 years, 4 months and 21 days as against the permissible upper age limit of 30 years. However, in the process the petitioner has conveniently withdrawn the process selection which included advertisement indicating the last date of submission of application form etc. There is no whisper in the writ petition as to whether on the date of submission of the application offering candidature, the petitioner was within the age limit.

(2.) There is another aspect of the matter that has come to the notice of this Court on perusal of the service book of the petitioner. As per the service book, the petitioner was appointed as LDA in the year 1978 against a temporary vacancy in the office of the Superintendent of Police, Cachar, Silchar. Thus the petitioner has conveniently omitted the earlier appointment as LDA w.e.f. 1978 in continuation of which he was regularly appointed.

(3.) According to the petitioner, the authority at the time of his appointment having accepted the corrected date of birth as disclosed in the said affidavit they are now precluded from taking the date of birth of the petitioner as 12.04.1952 and retiring him from service on that basis. The petitioner has also referred to the gradation list published on 20.03.2010 in which his date of birth was shown as 12.09.1957.