MOHAMMAD ALAUDDIN Vs. BIHAR STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS application has been filed for quashing the order dated 6.2.2003 whereby the petitioner has been directed to superannuate from the service of the Bihar State Electricity Board on 30th of June, 2003 on completion of 42 years of service.

(2.) SHORT facts giving rise to the present application are that the petitioner was appointed as Meter Charger on 1.7.1961 in the Patna Electric Supply Company Ltd. Later on, the Patna Electric Supply Company was taken over by the State Government and vested in the Bihar State Electricity Board on 6th of February, 1974 which is now known as Patna Electricity Supply Undertaking, (hereinafter referred to as the Undertaking). While the petitioner was working in the undertaking his service book was opened showing his date of birth as 19.12.1945. It seems that the aforesaid entry was made on the basis of the entry made in the Secondary School Examination Certificate, which the petitioner passed in June, 1962 i.e. after his appointment. It is the grievance of the petitioner that in the service book there being no interpolation, he ought not to have been retired from service on completion of 42 years of service but should have ailcwed to continue in service till the age of 60 years.

(3.) ANOTHER decision on which Mr. Sharma has placed reliance is a decision of a Division Bench of this Court in the case of Mohktar Ahmad V/s. Bihar State Road Transport Corporation and others [1995 (1) PLJR 183] and my attention has been drawn to paragraph 8 of the judgment which reads as follows: - "In the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the Corporation these submissions have not been controverted. It is, thus, apparent that when the petitioner was appointed at the age of 16 years and 6 months it was within the complete knowledge of the employer and even in case there was any prohibition against appointment of a person below the age of 18 years the same was waived by the employer in consideration of getting hold of a good football player. In that view it is no longer open for the Corporation after forty years to turn back and to say that the initial appointment being bad his date of birth must be pushed back by a year and a half. In our opinion, such an action would be wholly unreasonable and arbitrary."