Statutory obligation to consider rectification requests under Rule 49 and timely action due to impending retirement.

1. On the oral request of the petitioner, the State of Tamil Nadu through its Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, is impleaded as party to this writ petition.

2. The petitioner has approached this Court, with a prayer for issuance of a writ in the nature of Mandamus, directing respondents to rectify the error in the date of birth of the petitioner, which was wrongly entered in her service register and other relevant records as 28.09.1954 instead of 02.07.1956.

3. The petitioner submits that she was born on 02.07.1956 at Ponkurichi Kallupatti Village, Rasipuram Taluk, Namakkal District. The date of birth registered with the Registrar of Birth and Death, is 05.07.1956. However, at the time of her admission to elementary school, her date of birth was wrongly entered as 28.09.1954. This date of birth was thereafter recorded in the SSLC certificate and all other documents.

4. The petitioner joined as Lecturer in the Government Arts College for Men at Namakkal on 26.03.1993 through the Teaching Recruitment Board. She was thereafter transferred to Thiruvalluvar Government Arts College for Men, Rasipuram, where she is working till date.

5. The case of the petitioner is that on coming to know about the actual date of birth, she issued a legal notice through counsel for correction of her date of birth. In response to the legal notice, the petitioner was informed to proceed in accordance with Rule 49 of the Tamil Nadu State Subordinate Service Rules.

6. Rule 49 of the Tamil Nadu State Subordinate Service Rules reads as under:

"49.) Alternation of date of birth (a) If, at the time of appointment, a candidate claims that his date of birth is different from that entered in his S.S.L.C. Or Matriculation Register or School records, he shall make an application to the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission in cases where the appointment is made in consultation with the Commission and in other cases to the appointing authority stating the evidence on which he relies and explaining how the mistake occurred. The application shall be forwarded to the Commissioner of Revenue Administration for report after investigation by an officer not below the rank of a Deputy Collector and, on receipt of the report, the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission or the appointing authority, as the case may be, shall decide whether the alteration of date of birth may be permitted or the application may be rejected:

Provided that in case of a candidate who was born outside the State of Tamil Nadu the investigation through the Commissioner of Revenue Administration shall be dispensed with and the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission or the appointing authority, as the case may be, shall examine and scrutinize the records that may be produced by the candidate and shall decide whether the alteration of date of birth may be permitted or the application may be rejected.

(b) After a person has entered service, an application to alter the date of his birth as entered in the official records shall be entertained only if such an application is made within five years of such entry into service. Such an application shall be made to the authority competent to make an appointment to the post held by the applicant at the time of his application and shall be disposed of in accordance with the procedure laid down in sub-rule(a).

(c) Any application received after five years after entry into service or any application, which is not supported by entries in Secondary School Leaving Certificate, School, College or University records, birth extract from records of local bodies or military discharge certificates, shall be summarily rejected.

(d) In considering the question of permitting an alteration on the date of birth as entered in the official records even when such entry is proved to have been due to a bonafide mistake, the Government or the appointing authority shall take into consideration the circumstance whether the applicant would normally be eligible