Important Point
High Court has to exercise its power under Article 227 of the Constitution judiciously and to further the ends of justice.

JUDGMENT

V.Gopala Gowda, J. –

Leave granted.

2. This appeal is filed by the appellant against the final judgment and order dated 19.04.2011, passed by the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad in Special Civil Application No. 4168 of 2002, whereby the High Court allowed the petition filed by the respondent under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, praying for issuance of an appropriate writ or direction for quashing and setting aside the judgment and award dated 31.7.2001 passed by the Labour Court, Bhavnagar in Reference(LCB) No.225 of 1998.

3. Brief facts of the case are stated hereunder:

The appellant was the employee of the erstwhile Bhavnagar Electricity Company Ltd. which was taken over by the respondent – board and the appellant was appointed afresh as per the agreement in 1978. The appellant gave an application in the year 1987 to change his birth date from 27.6.1937 to 27.6.1940 but he was orally informed of the rejection of his request. The Executive Engineer of the respondent – board addressed a letter to the appellant directing him to produce a school leaving certificate or Municipal Birth certificate as proof and stated that in the absence of production of the required documents, the date of birth recorded in the service book shall be final. The appellant’s elder brother filed a criminal application no.227 of 1987 wherein it was prayed that the Registrar of Birth and Date Records, Bhavnagar be directed to enter the date of birth of the appellant as 27.6.1940 on its record and a birth certificate be issued. The Court of the JMFC vide order dated 22.05.1987 directed the Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation(BMC) to issue a birth certificate to the appellant. Pursuant to this order a birth certificate was issued by the BMC, the Xerox copy of which is marked as Ex.52, wherein his date of birth was shown as 27.6.1940. The appellant forwarded the birth certificate issued by the BMC to the respondent on 25.5.1987 and sent a reminder on 11.6.1987 to make corrections in the service record with regard to his date of birth. He was informed by the Executive Engineer of the respondent – board that he has to produce his original school leaving certificate or SSC pass certificate in order to effect corrections in the service records. The Electricity Board vide its circular dated 28.5.1989 informed all the employees that for the purpose of deciding date of birth and making corrections for the same, only School Leaving Certificate of SSC or HSC may be taken into account.

4. As his date of birth was not corrected, the appellant filed a civil suit in the year 1997 for declaration regarding his date of birth and prayed for interim relief, but the same was rejected. He then filed a civil misc. appeal No.124 of 1997 before the District Court, Bhavnagar, against the order of the civil court, but this also came to be rejected. The respondent – board, on 27.6.1997, pursuant to the date of birth in its records, terminated the services of the appellant and the appellant raised an industrial dispute before the Conciliation Officer which was referred by the State Government for adjudication to Labour Court, Bhavnagar vide reference(LCB) no.225 of 1998. The Labour Court has allowed the reference after conducting an enquiry and passed an Award dated 31.7.2001 holding that the termination of the services of the appellant prematurely on the basis of his incorrect date of birth was wrong and further directed the respondent to pay full salary, all admissible ancillary benefits from the date he was wrongfully and prematurely terminated from service till the date of his actual retirement and further, also ordered that a sum of Rs.1,500/ – be paid as costs. The respondent filed a petition under Articles 226 and 227, being special civil application no.4168 of 2002 before the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad. The same was allowed and the award passed by the Labour Court in Reference(LCB) No.225 of 1998 was set aside. Aggrieved by the same, the appell