ORDER :

1. By this petition, the petitioner seeks correction of his date of birth from 06.04.1979 to 17.08.1980. He is aggrieved by the order dated 22.05.2017 issued by respondent No.2/Education Officer (Secondary) refusing to correct his date of birth.

2. On 11.07.2018, this Court had passed the following order :-

“1. Our attention is invited to order passed by the Division Bench of this Court dated 30.06.2017. It is further informed that in view of two views adopted by the Division Bench, the matter is referred to Larger Bench for consideration of the issue. It will not be out of place to refer to the order passed by Division Bench of this Court dated 30.06.2017. Reliance was placed on the judgment in the matter of Shaikh Shafi Ahmed Vs. State of Maharashtra, 2012(5) Mh.L.J.35, Swapneel s/o. Maroti Sonwale Vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors., 2013(6) Mh.L.J.400 and Vilas s/o. Dattatraya Ransubhe Vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors., 2013(1) Mh.L.J.851. Then it was brought to the notice of Division Bench that there was contrary view taken by other Division Bench in the matter of Captain Anil vasantrao Bhat & Anr. Vs. Divisional Secretary, Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Education, Nagpur Divisional Board, Nagpur (Special Civil Application No.1048 of 1971). The Division Bench was pleased to observe that the Division Bench adopting a contrary view taken in SCA No.1048 of 1971, was not brought to the notice of the Court, which dealt with the issue subsequently. It will also be useful to refer to the further observations of the Division Bench, as reliance is placed on judgment dealing with Rule 26.4 and the Division Bench was pleased to observe thus:-

“14. We are of the view that the limitation enunciated in Rule 26.4 that an application can be entertained seeking change or correction in the date of birth, name, surname, caste, etc., entered in the General Register from or on behalf of a pupil who is attending a school; and that if correction is required in the school record by a student desirous of securing admission to another educational institution and the School Leaving Certificate is relied upon as an evidence for name, surname, caste, date of birth, etc., and in such bonafide cases, where wrong spelling of a word or an obvious mistake of the type mentioned in sub-rule 3 is noticed, such application shall be entertained.

15. It is, thus, clear that if an application is made by a student/pupil, for recording change in entries who has left the school for the purposes of securing admission to another education institution, the application shall be entertained and not otherwise and that the request for effecting change shall be consistent with Rules 26.3 and 26.4 read with Appendix Six of the Secondary Schools Code. The issue, as to whether an application seeking correction in the school record can be entertained even after the pupil has left school and is no more a student, needs to be considered.

16. In view of the conflict between judgments (cited supra) and in view of the discussion as recorded above, we deem it appropriate that the issue deserves to be considered by a Larger Bench. The following issues need to be referred for consideration of the Larger Bench.

(A) Whether an application seeking alteration, change or correction in the name, surname, date of birth, caste, or other entries entered in the General Register, including correction in spelling of name, surname, date of birth, caste, as recorded in the General Register, shall be entertained by or on behalf of the pupil who has left the school and the change in the aforesaid entries, is necessitated for the purposes like securing an admission to another educational institution and the School Leaving Certificate is relied upon as an evidence for name, surname, caste, date of birth, etc.

(B) Whether the view adopted by the Division Bench in the matters of (i) Swapneel s/o Maroti Sonwale Vs. State of Maharashtra & others, reported in 2013 (6) Mh.L.J. 400; (ii) in the matter of Vila