ARUN MAHTO Vs. CENTRAL COALFIELDS LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER has challenged the advance notice dated 2.6.2005 informing him that he will superannuate on 29.12.2005. Petitioner has further prayed for direction upon the respondents to correct his date of birth on the basis of the school leaving certificate and for consequential benefits.

(2.) THE question is whether the petitioner can be allowed to raise dispute about his date of birth and reopen the matter at the fag end of his service?

(3.) IT has been categorically denied by the respondents that petitioner produced any certificate in proof of his date of birth at the time of his appointment on 29.12.1979. It has been asserted that the date of birth recorded in the service book (Annexure A) is '29.12.1945' whereupon petitioner put his signature as far back as on 23.10.1980. The service excerpt signed by the petitioner on 7.3.1987 has also been annexed as Annexure B. Several other documents have been annexed as Annexures C, D, E, F in the counter affidavit to show that in all those documents, petitioner's date of birth is mentioned as '29.12.1945' and he signed all such documents between the years 1980 to 1998, which has not been denied by the petitioner. In these circumstances, it cannot be accepted that all such documents have been manufactured by the management. Moreover, there is no reason for the management to do so. Thus it is clear that the petitioner was fully knowing from the very beginning that his date of birth recorded in the service records was '29.12.1945'. The date of birth is a vital entry for an employee. Petitioner was not an illiterate. It is not possible to believe that only in 2004, he learnt about his date of birth recorded in the service book. Thus it has to be held that petitioner raised the dispute at the fag end of his service when he was going to retire in 2005.