The central legal point established in the judgment is that delay and laches in seeking correction of the Date of Birth in the service record, coupled with the prior acceptance of the recorded Date of Birth without objection, can lead to the dismissal of a Writ Petition.

JUDGMENT :

TASHI RABSTAN, J.

1. This intra Court appeal is directed against the Judgment and Order dated 27th of September, 2018 passed in SWP No. 1235/2017, whereby the learned Single Judge has allowed the Writ Petition filed by the Writ Petitioner/Respondent herein and directed the Writ Respondents/Appellants herein to enter the Date of Birth of the Writ Petitioner/ Respondent herein in the service record in accordance with her Date of Birth recorded in the Matriculation certificate issued by the Board of School Education.

2. The brief facts of the case, as emerge from the pleadings on record, are that the Writ Petitioner/Respondent herein came to be engaged on temporary basis as Assistant Craftsman for Paper Machine Training Centre, Gilkadal, Srinagar vide Order No. 58-HDT of 1978 dated 2nd of February, 1978. Thereafter, the Writ Petitioner/Respondent herein came to be appointed as Craft Instructor in the year 1992 on substantive basis and, subsequently, was promoted to the post of Senior Craft Instructor. The Writ Petitioner/ Respondent herein pleaded that in the year 2014, when the records were being re-checked after the Kashmir Valley was hit by floods, she came to know that her Date of Birth had been wrongly recorded in the service records as 26th of September, 1958, instead of 12th of May, 1960. She, immediately, filed an application before the concerned authority for seeking correction, however, since no action was taken despite lapse of considerable period of time, the Writ Petitioner/Respondent herein filed Writ Petition bearing SWP No. 1235/2017, claiming therein that although she had produced her Matriculation certificate before the appointing authority at the time of her initial appointment wherein the Date of Birth is recorded as 12th of May, 1960, the Writ Respondents/Appellants have wrongly recorded her Date of Birth as 29th of June, 1958.

3. We have heard the learned Counsel for the parties, perused the pleadings on record and have considered the matter.

4. The Judgment dated 27th of September, 2018 passed by the Writ Court is challenged by the Writ Respondents/Appellants herein, inter-alia, on the grounds that the Writ Petitioner/ Respondent herein did not produce any Matriculation certificate at the time of her entry into Government service and, therefore, the Writ Respondents/Appellants herein have rightly constituted a Committee to determine the age of the Writ Petitioner/Respondent herein and, accordingly, on the basis of the report of the said Committee, the Date of Birth of the Writ Petitioner/Respondent herein has been recorded in her service record as 26th of September, 1958. The Appellants further plead that once the Date of Birth declared by a Government servant is accepted by the appointing authority, no subsequent correction therein can be carried out at the fag end of the service career of that Government servant.

5. Mr. Mohammad Rais-ud-Din Ganai, the learned Deputy Advocate General, submitted that the correction of the Date of Birth of the Government employee has to be considered in terms of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Regulations and, as per Article 35-AA of the said Regulations, the maximum time limit prescribed for seeking correction of the Date of Birth with respect to a Government servant is five (05) years.

6. Per Contra, Mr Tasaduq H. Khawja, the learned Counsel for the Writ Petitioner/ Respondent herein, vehemently argued that the Writ Petitioner/Respondent herein has passed her Matriculation examination in the year 1972, that is much before her entry into Government service, and the said certificate has been produced before the authority at the time of her initial appointment, but when the records were being re-checked pursuant to the floods of 2014 in the Valley, the Petitioner noticed that instead of recording her Date of Birth according to the Matriculation certificate viz. 12th of May, 1960, the Respondents/ Appellants herein have, in an arbitrary manner and without there being a