( 1 ) THE writ petition raises the issue of the right of the petitioner to get her date of birth altered after initiating proceedings under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act ).

( 2 ) THE date of birth of the petitioner with the respondent, Central Board of Secondary Education is 20. 9. 1988 while as per the school admission form it is 19. 9. 1988. The petitioner claims that her actual date of birth is 4. 7. 1987 and thus applied for the issuance of a certificate by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi under Sections 12 and 17 of the said Act. The petitioner claims that due to the aforesaid mistake, the petitioner was unable to apply for the medical entrance examination because the requisite age qualification for admission to the medical colleges is 17 years. The petitioner requested for the correction of her date of birth vide letter dated 4. 9. 2003 to her school and letter dated 15. 10. 2003 to the Regional Officer of the respondent. However, the request of the petitioner was rejected vide letter dated 12. 11. 2003 by the respondent in the aforesaid terms:

"with reference to your letter dated 10-11-2003 on the subject cited above, I am directed to inform you that no change in the Date of Birth once recorded in the Board s records shall be made. However, correction to correct typographical and other errors to make the certificate consistent with the school records can be made provided that corrections in the School Records should not have been made after the submission of application form for admission to examination to the Board. Hence, this case has been rejected as per examination bye laws. "

( 3 ) THE certificate which has been issued to the petitioner in Form No. 5 under Section 17 of the Act shows the date of registration as 25. 8. 2003. The father of the petitioner has filed an affidavit dated 27. 11. 2003 affirming that no certificate is available or issued in respect of the petitioner about her date of birth at the time when the birth took place.

( 4 ) THE petitioner by the present writ petition has sought quashing of the letter issued by the respondent and for recording of her date of birth in the certificate of the respondent as 4. 7. 1987.

( 5 ) IN the counter affidavit filed by the respondent, it is stated that the case of the petitioner is not one of correction of her date of birth and the date of birth is sought to be corrected much later in 2003 by applying under the Act only with the object of stating a younger age in order to enable the petitioner to take the examination of the pre-medical examination. It may be noticed that in terms of the interim order dated 19. 11. 2003, the respondent was directed to accept the form of the petitioner without prejudice to their rights and contentions in the petition.

( 6 ) THE stand of the respondent is that the enquiry to be conducted by the Magistrate under the Act should be a proper enquiry and an order should not be passed mechanically merely on the basis of an affidavit filed by a party. It is stated that no such proper verification was apparently done in the case of the petitioner and no notice was ever issued to the respondent. Reliance has been placed on the rules of the respondent for correction of the date of birth.

( 7 ) IN order to appreciate as to how the enquiry was made, the records from the Magistrate concerned were called for pursuant whereto the certificate had been issued to the petitioner. The records show that the application was filed for late registration of birth on 1. 5. 2003 and an enquiry was directed from the neighbour of the petitioner. The verification took place from Dr. S. P. Bansal and Ms. Alka Gupta. The application of the petitioner was supported by a Ration Card issued in 1996 where the year of birth of the petitioner has been recorded as 1987.

( 8 ) THE question which thus arises for consideration is whether a proper enquiry was conducted before issuing the certific