SURESH LAL Vs. SAIL, BOKARO STEEL PLANT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ petitioner has prayed for a direction on the respondents to rectify his date of birth and consequently date of superannuation on the basis of the date of birth recorded in the original service record at the time of entering in service, supported by the matriculation certificate, as required under the provisions of Standing Order of Bokaro Steel Plant.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner, his date of birth is 28th June, 1952, which has been mentioned in the matriculation certificate, and the said date of birth was entered in the original service record, medical book issued to the petitioner and in other documents also, such as statement of account showing Employees Superannuation's Benefit Fund. As per the date of birth, the petitioner's date of superannuation was shown as 30th June, 2010, on attaining the age of 58 years, and now after enhancement of the age of superannuation to 60 years, his date of superannuation is 30th June, 2012.

(3.) A counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the respondents, raising preliminary objections, regarding maintainability of the writ petition, stating, inter alia, that the petitioner's case has been referred to the Labour Court by notification dated 19th September. 2006 for the decision as to whether the retirement of* Sri Suresh Lai, Co -operative Staff, by raising his age from 28th June, 1952 to 28th June, 1947 by the Management is justified and in view of the said effective and alternative remedy, the writ petition is not maintainable. It has further been stated that at the time of joining, the petitioner himself has entered his date of birth in Personal Data Form as 28th June, 1947 (24 years 5 months 23 days), which was signed by him. The petitioner had passed Matriculation Examination in the year 1968 and although the said certificate was available with him, he did not submit the same, as proof of his age. The petitioner was a regular student and he would not have got full time employment as Technical/Rigger, while he was pursuing his study as a regular student, and he had no required experience and for that reason, he concealed the Matriculation Certificate and declared his age as aforesaid in the Personal Data Form. As per the Standing Order of the Respondent -Company, in absence of the Matriculation Certificate, the date of birth declared by the person at the time of joining becomes final and in that view, the petitioner is not entitled for rectification of his date of birth i.e. 28th June, 1952, according to the Matriculation Certificate.