Territorial Jurisdiction - To be determined with reference to the pleadings contained in the plaint.

Viney Mittal, J.

1. The present regular second appeal has been filed by an unsuccessful plaintiff.

2. The plaintiff-appellant filed a suit for declaration on August, 24, 1985. It was claimed by him that his date of birth mentioned in the matriculation certificate as January 1, 1948 is absolutely incorrect and his correct date of birth is April 17, 1949 as correctly entered in the register maintained by the Office of the Registrar, Births and Deaths, Amritsar. Consequently, a relief was sought against the defendants for directing them to correct the entry regarding date of birth of the plaintiff in the University record, as per the record maintained in the office the Registrar, Births and Deaths, Amritsar.

3. It may be relevant to notice here that the suit in question was filed by the plaintiff against the State of Punjab as well as Punjab University. The said suit was filed by him in the Court of Sub Judge at Amritsar. The plaintiff pleaded that he was born on April 17, 1949 at Village Alkare, Police Station Kathu Nangal, District Amritsar. An entry to the aforesaid effect was made in the register maintained by the office of Registrar, Births and Deaths Amritsar. Along with the suit, a certificate issued by the Additional District Registrar, Births and Deaths was appended. The plaintiff claimed that he was admitted in the Primary School, Waryam Nagal, District Amritsar and, at that point of time, his date of birth was recorded by his parents by guess work as January 1, 1948, which resulted into an incorrect entry of date of birth. The plaintiff pleaded that his parents were uneducated, rural folk and at the time of admission could not give correct date of birth. Upon coming to know the aforesaid error in recording his correct date of birth, he approached Punjab University, Chandigarh by giving his correct date of birth as April 17, 1949. As required by the University, the plaintiff submitted an affidavit duly sworn by his mother, indicating the date of birth of the plaintiff along with dates of birth of her other children. All the requisite documents, as required by the University were submitted by him but his date of birth was not corrected by the University.

4. The plaintiff further pleaded that he entered the Government service as a Lecturer on April 24, 1974 by joining G.K..S.N. Government College Tanda Urmur, District Hoshiarpur. In February, 1976 itself, the plaintiff applied to the Punjab University for correcting the date of birth. He also requested the D.P.I., Punjab, Chandigarh for correction of the date of birth in the service record. However, the State Government maintained that the plaintiff should first get his date of birth corrected in the University record and only thereafter his request for change of date of birth in the service record could be entertained. The plaintiff also pleaded that in May, 1981 he had joined Punjab Civil Services, Executive Branch but the matter with regard to the correction in his date of birth was still pending.

5. In the plaint, the plaintiff specifically pleaded that cause of action had accrued to him in May, 1983 when the defendants refused to admit the claim of the plaintiff. He also pleaded that since he was born at village Alkare, Police Station Kathu Nangal, District Amritsar and an entry in this respect was made in the register maintained in the office of the Registrar, Births and Deaths, Amritsar, therefore, the Courts at Amritsar had the jurisdiction.

6. Defendant No.l, State of Punjab chose not to appear despite service. Consequently, it was proceeded against ex parte. The suit of the plaintiff was contested by defendant No. 2, Punjab University. Besides generally denying all the facts contained in the plaint, defendant No. 2 also chose to raise a plea of limitation and also objected to the territorial jurisdiction of the court at Amritsar.

The learned trial Court framed the following issues: 1. Whether the plaintiff is entitled for the declaration prayed for? OPD