Vipul M. Pancholi, J.

This petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, in which, the petitioners have prayed that the respondent no.1 be directed to correct the caste mentioned in Column No.3 of the school leaving certificates issued by the respondent no.1, which was issued in favour of the petitioners. It is further prayed that fresh school leave certificates, after making necessary correction, be issued to the petitioners.

2. Heard learned advocate, Mr. Ramkrishna Dave for the petitioners and learned AGP Ms. Shruti Pathak for the respondent no.2. Though served, no one appears for the respondent no.1.

3. It is submitted by learned advocate for the petitioners that the petitioners were born on 22.09.2001 and they were staying in Image English School i.e. the respondent no.1 and the petitioner no.1 has been issued school leave certificate on 31.05.2017 on the ground "Appeared for SSC Exam March, 2017", whereas the petitioner no.2 has been issued school leaving certificate on 31.05.2015 on the ground "Passed and Promoted to Std. IX (Ninth)". It is submitted that the respondent no.1 has committed mistake in Column No.3 of the school leaving certificates that it is mentioned as "Hindu Maheria", which is surname of the petitioners and not a caste and in fact, the caste of the petitioner is "Hindu Rohit". Learned advocate for the petitioners has referred to the caste certificate issued by the competent authority in favour of the petitioners, which are produced at Page Nos.13 & 14 of the compilation and after referring to the said documents, it is submitted that in the said certificates, the caste of the petitioner is shown as "Hindu Rohit" and, therefore while issuing school leaving certificates by the respondent no.1 in favour of the petitioners, it is wrongly mentioned in the column of caste of the petitioners as "Hindu Maheria".

4. Learned advocate for the petitioners submits that the representation was made by the father of the petitioners to the respondent no.1 for making necessary correction in the school leaving certificate, however, the said request was not accepted by the respondent no.1. It is submitted that on 13.11.2017, the respondent no.1 informed the father of the petitioners that as per direction of the DEO, Ahmedabad, the school authority has no power to make changes in the marksheet and school leaving certificate once the student has cleared board examination and, therefore, the petitioners have filed present petition.

5. Learned advocate for the petitioners submitted that though alternative remedy is available to the petitioners in view of the decision rendered by the Division Bench of this Court dated 24.11.2011 passed in Letters Patent Appeal No.239/2011 and the order dated 05.12.2018 passed in Special Civil Application No.4630/2018, this Court can entertain the petition, which is filed under Section 226 of the Constitution of India and thereby necessary direction can be issued to the respondent authority.

6. On the other hand, learned AGP submitted that the petitioners are having alternative efficacious remedy of filing proceeding under Regulation 12A of the Gujarat Secondary Education Regulation before the concerned Magistrate Court for making necessary correction and, therefore, this petition may not be entertained. However, learned AGP is not in a position to dispute the fact that the competent authority has issued caste certificate to the petitioners, wherein the caste of the petitioners is mentioned as "Hindu Rohit".

7. I have considered the submissions canvassed by learned advocates for the petitioners and have also gone through the material produced on record. It is revealed from the material produced on record that the competent authority has issued caste certificate in favour of the petitioners, wherein the caste of the petitioners is mentioned as "Hindu Rohit", however, if the school leaving certificates issued by the respondent no.1 in favour of the petitioners are examined,