IQBABUL HAQUE Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RETIREMENT of the petitioner from service, which is alleged to be prematured on the basis of the corrected date of birth recorded in the matriculation certificate and the related issues as to how far such correction can bind the employer and even if it is said to be binding or is acted upon, the manner and method in which such correction is to be carried out towards correction of the already recorded date of birth in the service book are the questions involved in this writ petition.

(2.) THE facts are not in dispute. The petitioner passed the matriculation examination from Gauhati University in the year 1961. His age as on 1. 3. 61 was recorded in the matriculation certificate as 16 years 6 months. His date of birth on that basis is 1. 9. 44. However, a correction was carried out in the matriculation certificate by the authorities of the University on 10. 9. 73 certifying the age of the petitioner as on 1. 3. 61 as 14 years 1 month and on that basis his date of birth became 1. 3. 47. Before such correction was made in the matriculation certificate, the petitioner had entered the services of the respondents by joining as Subordinate Engineer on 19. 5. 73. Thus naturally, while declaring his credentials before appointment, the petitioner declared his date of birth as 1. 9. 44 and obtained the employment on that basis.

(3.) IT is the case of the petitioner that on the basis of the correction made in the matriculation certificate relating to his age, necessary correction was carried out in the service book under the entry relating to date of birth in which his date of birth already stood recorded as 1st September, 1944 on the basis of the earlier age recorded in the certificate. The Executive Engineer, PWD (Randb), Electrical Divn. , Guwahati made such correction on 30. 5. 74 by putting a line on the original entry "1st September, 1944" and inserting 1st March, 1946.