U.B. Saha, J.

1. The Petitioner while serving as Sub-Inspector of Police in the year 2010, all on a sudden was served an order No. 4489 dated 10.9.2010, Annexure 7 to the writ petition, issued by the Superintendent of Police, West Tripura, Agartala in pursuance of the Order No. 3856-57/F.51/DGP (RSV)/2008 dated 10.9.2010, Annexure 8 to the writ petition, issued by the Director General of Police, Tripura, Agartala informing, inter alia, that his name has been struck off from the strength of West District with effect from the afternoon of 31.5.2009. In the said order, it has also been mentioned that the difference between the salary drawn by SI (UB) Manik Lal Deb w.e.f. 1.6.2009 to 31.8.2010 shall be treated as "non due" to him and the same shall be deducted from the pension benefits of him and deposited to the Treasury under appropriate head of account. Both the orders have been impugned in the writ petition with a prayer for quashing them and to reinstate the Petitioner in service w.e.f. 1.6.2009 till his retirement on the basis of his date of birth as 1.3.1955 with all financial and other benefits.

2. Heard Mr. S. Talapatra, learned senior counsel assisted by Ms. J. Bhusan, learned Counsel for the Petitioner as well as Mr. J. Mazumder, learned Counsel appearing for the State Respondents.

3. The pleaded case of the Petitioner is as follows:

The Petitioner has entered the service as a Constable on 13.12.1972. Thereafter, he was promoted to the post of Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police on 19.5.1980. Subsequently, on consideration of efficiency and eligibility of the Petitioner, he was further promoted to the post of Sub-Inspector of Police (unarmed Branch) on 16.11.1998. The basic information relating to the service of the Petitioner has been recorded in the provisional gradation/seniority list of the Sub-Inspector of Police (Unarmed Branch) showing seniority as on 1.1.2008 and was published on 28.3.2008 under reference No. 7407-7524/SP/RSV/WD/2008 by the Superintendent of Police, West Tripura.

4. The date of birth of the Petitioner is 1.3.1955 as per his Admit Card issued by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the Citizenship Certificate issued by the District Magistrate and Collector, West Tripura on 1.11.1972, which he had submitted at the time of his entry into service as proof of his age, but while inspecting the Service Book of the Petitioner, he found that the Recording Officer recorded his date of birth as 1.3.1951 inadvertently in the Service Book instead of 1.3.1955 and to rectify the said mistake, he made prayer to the competent authority for correcting the said mistake and on the basis of his age proof document attached to the Attestation Form and as per entry in Column 7 where the exact date of birth has been provided by the Petitioner filed at the time of entry into service, the said clerical mistake relating to his date of birth was corrected as 1.3.1955 by the Superintendent of Police, his appointing authority who is the competent authority. After correction of the date of birth of the Petitioner as per records, the Petitioner was asked by the Superintendent of Police, West Tripura District, Agartala to submit an explanation as to how he entered service at the age of 17 years 9 months vide letter dated 5.3.2010 (Annexure 3 to the writ petition). The Petitioner submitted his explanation on 11.3.2010, Annexure 4 to the writ petition, stating inter alia, that he joined the service as constable in the year-1972 producing age proof certificate along with other documents as per requirement which had been accepted by the authority having done the scrutiny as per Service Rules in force. The Petitioner also learnt that the office of the Respondent No. 3 also enquired into the genuineness of his citizenship certificate dated 1.11.1972 issued from the Office of the District Magistrate and Collector, West Tripura, Agartala as proof of his nationality and by letter dated 2.1.2010, Annexure 5 to the writ petiti