The burden lies upon the plaintiff to explain the delay in approaching the court for seeking correction of a mistake, regardless of whether the mistake is on the part of the plaintiff or the defendant.

JUDGMENT :

1. The appellant has filed the instant civil second appeal against judgment and decree dated 23.11.2016 passed by the learned 1st Civil Subordinate Judge (Special Municipal Magistrate), Jammu (hereinafter to be referred as the trial court) as upheld vide judgment and decree dated 20.10.2021 passed by learned 1st Additional District Judge, Jammu (hereinafter to be referred as the 1st appellate court).

2. The facts leading to the filing of the instant civil second appeal are that the respondent/plaintiff filed a suit against the appellant/defendant before the trial court seeking a declaration to the effect that his actual date of birth is 16.03.1965 with a mandatory injunction directing the defendant to make necessary correction in the Secondary School Examination Certificate of the plaintiff issued by the defendant. In the plaint, it was pleaded that the plaintiff had appeared in Secondary School Examination held in the year 1991 as a private candidate under Roll No. 724202 and was declared successful. However, in the certificate issued by the defendant-Board, the date of birth of the plaintiff was shown as 16.03.1957 whereas the actual date of birth of the plaintiff is 16.03.1965, as was reflected in the school records as well as in the School Leaving Certificate issued in favour of the plaintiff by the Headmaster, Government High School Bhagwa, Doda. It was pleaded by the plaintiff that in the admission form submitted him, he had filled up his date of birth as 16.03.1965, but while transcribing the same in the Secondary School Examination Certificate, the defendant-Board wrongly reflected it as 16.03.1957.

3. It was pleaded by the plaintiff that in June, 2012, while he was searching for some documents, he came across his Secondary School Examination Certificate in which his date of birth was reflected as 16.03.1957, whereafter, he represented before the defendant-Board for effecting necessary correction in the record but to no avail. Ultimately, on 22.08.2012, the plaintiff served a legal notice upon the defendant-Board calling upon it to make the necessary correction in the date of birth of the plaintiff, however, the same did not yield any result, which compelled him to file the suit before the trial court.

4. The Defendant-Board contested the suit by filing its written statement. It was contended by the defendant-Board before the trial court that as per the Regulations of the Board issued on 16.02.2009, the limitation/period for correction of any particulars is three years from the date of issuance of qualification certificate and beyond the said period, no request of such nature can be entertained under any circumstance. It was also pleaded that limitation period for filing a civil suit for correction of any mistake is three years from the date the mistake becomes known to the plaintiff. According to the defendant-Board, the Secondary School Examination Certificate was issued to the plaintiff in July, 1992 but the suit seeking correction of the date of birth has been filed by him only in the year, 2013 and as such, the same is hopelessly barred by limitation.

5. On merits, the defendant-Board did not make any comment as regards the mistake that had taken place at the time of transcribing the birth particulars of the plaintiff from his application form to the Secondary School Examination Certificate. It was, however, denied that the plaintiff had ever represented before the defendant-Board for effecting necessary correction in his date of birth.

6. On the basis of the pleadings, the learned trial court framed the following issues:

(i) Whether the present suit filed by the plaintiff is barred by law of limitation? OPD.

(ii) Whether no cause of action has accrued to the plaintiff to file the present suit for correction of birth particulars? OPD

(iii) Whether in the diploma secondary school examination the date of birth of plaintiff has been wrongly shown as 16-03-1957 whereas his actual date of birth is 16-3-1965?

(iv) Whet