The main legal point established is that the decision of the General Education Department to correct the date of birth in the School Records binds the Administrative Department, and the correction must be carried out in the Service Records as well.

1. Petitioner was having his date of birth entered in the ESLC Book and the Service Records as 9-6-1107. He wanted to have it corrected as 9-6-1108. For the said purpose he filed a petition before the Commissioner for Government Examination on 28-2-1984. The delay in filing that petition was condoned by the Government. The Commissioner after considering the entire evidence let in by the petitioner, rejected the application by his order dated 9-9-1986. That order was challenged in appeal before the Government. By Ext. P1 order dated 29-11-1986, the Government allowed the appeal and ordered that the date of birth of the petitioner in the School records will be corrected as 9-6-1108. In pursuance to that order the Commissioner carried out the correction. After getting the ESLC Book and the School records corrected in the above manner, the petitioner applied to the Government by Ext. P2 dated 1-12-1986 to correct his date of birth in the Service Records. Since the Government did not pass any order on Ext. P2, be filed Ext. P3 representation before the Hon'ble Chief Minister on 19-1-1987 for getting the date of birth in the Service records changed. On 28-1-1987, he approached this Court by filing OP No. 759 of 1987 for a direction to the Government to pass final orders on Exts. P2 and P3 representations. This Court disposed of that Original Petition on the same day with a direction to the Government to pass final order within three weeks from that date. Thereafter the petitioner filed Ext. P5 representation before the Hon'ble Chief Minister with a copy of the judgment in OP No. 759 of 1987 on 2-2-1987. The Government by Ext. P8 order dated 7-2-1987 dismissed the application to correct the date of birth in the Service records. Hence this Original Petition.

2. A detailed counter affidavit has been filed by a Joint Secretary to Government, Public Works and Transport Department. According to the said counter-affidavit the correction of date of birth in the School Records will not automatically entitle the petitioner to get the date of birth corrected in the service records. After getting the date of birth corrected in the School records when the petitioner applied for correcting his date of birth in the Service Records, the Government are entitled to examine the entire case, as to whether the correction is to be carried out or not. When such an approach was made, according to him, it was found that the petitioner was not entitled to get his date of birth corrected in the service records. That explains Ext. P8 Government order.

3. The petitioner, as per the date of birth originally entered in the school records has completed 55 years in January, 1987. So he has retired from service on 31-1-1987.

4. On 28-2-1984, he applied for getting his date of birth corrected in the school records. It was well prior to two years of his retirement. Delay in filing that petition was condoned by the Government. The entire records sought to be relied on by the petitioner were produced before the Commissioner for Government Examinations. The Commissioner rejected his application by order dated 9-9-1986. Thereupon the petitioner took up the matter in appeal before the Government. The Government by Ext.P1 order reversed the decision of the Commissioner for Government Examinations and ordered the date of birth to be corrected as 9-6-1108. In pursuance to that direction by the Government, the Commissioner corrected the school records and the ESLC Book of the petitioner. As per the said corrected date of birth the petitioner will complete the age of 55 only in January, 1988.

5. As stated earlier by Ext. P1 order, the Government decided to correct the date of birth of the petitioner in the School records as 9-6-1108. Immediately thereafter on 1-12-1986, the petitioner approached the Government to have his date of birth corrected in the service records. The question now to be gone into is whether the Government after having decided to correct the petitio