The duty of the authorities to consider relevant documents for correction of date of birth in school records based on the principles established in the Secondary School Code.

K.K. Tated, J.

1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the learned counsel for the parties, this Petition is heard finally at the stage of admission.

2. The present Writ Petition filed by the Petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for directing the Respondents to decide his application dated 11th March, 2005 for correction of date of birth in the school records. It is the case of the Petitioner that his birth date is wrongly recorded in the school records and therefore he applied to the Head Master and Education Officer for correction of date of birth. He also submitted documentary evidence to support his case.

3. It is the case of the Petitioner that his birth date is recorded in school records as 10th January, 1984 whereas his correct birth date is 13th July, 1985. It is the case of the Petitioner that he belongs to the scheduled caste category i.e. Mang. His father is not highly qualified person and due to his less education, he has not taken any care to record the correct birth date in school. Petitioner says that he completed S.S.C. in the year 2000. At that time he was not aware about his wrong date of birth which was recorded in his school career. Petitioner was interested to participate in cricket team, therefore in December, 2003 he appeared before the selection committee at Beed. In December, 2003 he suspected that his birth date is wrong, therefore the Petitioner enquired with his mother and the mother informed the Petitioner that his birth date was recorded at Grampanchayat office Pithi. Therefore, the Petitioner approached the Grampanchayat, Pithi and also Block Development Officer, Patoda who is having custody of old record of birth and death register of Grampanchayat Pithi. On his application, Grampanchayat issued a birth certificate dated 22/1/2004 in which his birth date is shown as 13th July, 1985. On the basis of the said birth certificate, the Petitioner applied by his application dated 14th March, 2005 to the Respondent No.4 Head Master, Zilla Parishad High School, Pithi, Taluka-Patoda, Dist-Beed for correcting his birth date in school records. The Petitioner also made application dated 11th March, 2005 to the Respondent No.3 Education Officer (Secondary), Zilla Parishad Beed for correcting his birth date on the basis of birth certificate issued by Grampanchayat. Though he applied to Respondent No.3 on 11th March, 2005 there was no response from Respondent No.3, therefore the Petitioner was constrained to file aforesaid Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for direction to the Respondents to decide his application dated 11th March, 2005 for correction of date of birth in the school records.

4. Though the Respondents are duly served, except Respondent No.3 no one has filed their affidavit in reply in the above Petition. The Respondent no.3 filed affidavit in reply dated 28th September, 2005 opposing the Petition on the ground that as per clause 26/4 of Secondary School Code, once the entry is taken in the record, the said entry can be changed or modified if the application for change is received when candidate is taking admission in the school. Once the candidate has left the school, no change can be made in his surname, name, caste and birth date. The procedure for application is given in Schedule IV of the Secondary School Code. Respondent No.3 further stated that the Petitioner already left the school after passing S.S.C. examination, therefore they have no authority to change the date of birth.

5. It is submitted by the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Petitioner that from the Grampanchayat record it is crystal clear that the Petitioner’s date of birth is 13th July, 1985, however in the school records it is wrongly mentioned as 10th January 1984. Learned counsel for the Petitioner further submitted that it is the duty of the Respondents to take the note of documentary evidence produced by the Petitioner for correcting his dat