The court upheld the rejection of the petitioner's request to alter his date of birth in service records, emphasizing the need for timely submissions and procedural compliance.

JUDGMENT & ORDER :

Heard Mr. C. Lalramzuava, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. Stephen Lalbuatsaiha, learned counsel for the petitioner and Ms. Vanneihsiami, learned Govt. Advocate for the respondents. By filing this writ petition, the petitioner has sought for a direction to the respondents to change his date of birth from 15.05.1965 as written in his service book to 01.04.1967 as per his Matriculation Certificate.

[2.] Brief facts of the case essential for disposal of the instant case is that the petitioner was initially appointed as Assistant Jailor on 28.01.1991 on officiating basis and later on was regularized in service. He was thereafter promoted to the post of Jailor and presently, he is serving as Superintendent of Jail. It is the case of the petitioner that at the time of entering into service, his date of birth was wrongly entered as 15.05.1965 in his service book. The same was not to his knowledge for a long time but when he was posted in District Jail at Saiha in the year 1992. He came to learn about the wrong entry and accordingly, he submitted his representation before the Inspector General of Prisons on 15.04.1995 through the Superintendent, District Jail, Saiha. However, his application was not forwarded by the Superintendent of District Jail, Saiha. Thereafter, based on the Office Memorandum dated 07.01.2014 (Annexure - 14), the petitioner submitted his second representation before the Inspector General of Prisons requesting for alteration of his date of birth as per his Matriculation Certificate. The representation was forwarded by the petitioner himself to the Inspector General of Prisons on 28.01.2014 and the latter forwarded the same to the Under Secretary to the Govt. of Mizoram, Home Department on 25.02.2014.

[3.] In response to the same, the Deputy Secretary to the Govt. of Mizoram, Home Department wrote back to the I.G Prisons stating that the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (General Service Wing), hereinafter referred to as DP&AR (GSW) regretted the alteration of the date of birth of the petitioner vide their I.D dated 24.03.2014. The said communication was made on 02.04.2014. Thereafter, the I.G, Prisons once again wrote to the Under Secretary to the Govt. of Mizoram, Home Department on 23.01.2024 requesting the alteration of date of birth of the petitioner as per his Matriculation Certificate. In response to the same, the earlier representation submitted by the petitioner and the action taken in that regard was asked to be submitted to the Home Department vide Communication dated 05.03.2024 written by the Under Secretary to the Govt. of Mizoram, Home Department to the I.G, Prisons. Thereafter, vide Communication dated 05.06.2024, the proposal for alteration of the date of birth of the petitioner was rejected and conveyed to the I.G, Prisons as well as the petitioner. Aggrieved, the petitioner is before this Court.

[4.] Mr. C. Lalramzauva, learned Senior Counsel submits that the date of birth of the petitioner was wrongly entered in his service book and the petitioner was not aware of this fact. After he was posted in the District Jail, Saiha in the year 1992, the petitioner came to learn about the same and he submitted his representation to the Superintendent, District Jail, Saiha on 15.04.1995 requesting alteration of his date of birth as per his Matriculation Certificate. However, the said authority summarily rejected the representation on the ground that it was against the Government order and did not forward the said representation to the higher authority.

[5.] The learned Senior Counsel submits that on 07.01.2014, an Office Memorandum was issued by the DP&AR (GSW) instructing Controlling Officers of the Departments to submit the proposal for alteration of date of birth in the service book within two (2) months from the date of issuance of the Office Memorandum. The petitioner accordingly submitted his second representation to the I.G, Prisons on 28.01.2014 while mentioning th