A government servant cannot claim a shift in their date of birth as a matter of right, especially after a significant delay (laches), and such requests must strictly adhere to statutory time limits and departmental regulations, which generally bar alterations after five years of entry into service.

O R D E R

Per Hon’ble Mr. Suchitto Kumar Das, Administrative Member :

1. The applicant has approached this Tribunal under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 praying for the following relief(s):

“a) To direct the respondent No.4 to consider and pass an order to the representation submitted by the applicant on 24.01.2018 forthwith;

b) To pass an order directing the respondent no.4 to correct the Date of Birth of the applicant on the basis of the contemporeneous documents submitted with the application to the respondent No.4;

c) To pass such other or further order or orders and/or direction or directions as to Your Lordships may deem fit and proper;”

2. Facts as narrated by the applicant are as follows: Applicant was initially appointed as Sorting Assistant on 23.12.1984. Thereafter, the applicant was transferred to Director of Accounts (Postal), West Bengal Circle as Lower Division Clerk on 01.03.1991. The applicant was promoted to the post of Junior Accountant on 01.10.1996. The applicant was promoted to the post of Senior Accountant on 04.11.2010. When the applicant entered the service of the respondent, the Date of Birth entered into the service record was 05.01.1959. The said entry was made in the service record of the applicant on the basis of the Admit Card issued by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. However, later on, the applicant came into possession of his horoscope, made shortly after his birth, which showed his date of birth as 10.03.1960. Thereafter, he approached the hospital in Calcutta where he was born and on the basis of records furnished by the hospital, obtained a birth certificate from Kolkata Municipal Corporation. On receipt of these documents, the applicant submitted a representation to the respondent no. 4 on 24.01.2018 praying therein to change the date of birth of the applicant from 05.01.1959 to 10.03.1960. The applicant has not received any orders from the respondent no. 4 to his representation dated 24.01.2018. Hence this O.A.

3. Ld. Counsel for the applicant submits that it is settled principle of law that for determining the age of a person, the best evidence is of his/her parents, if it is supported by unimpeachable documents. In case the date of birth depicted in the School Register/Certificate stands belied by the un-impeachable evidence of reliable persons and contemporaneous documents like the Date of Birth Register of the Municipal Corporation, Govt. Hospital/Nursing Home, etc., the entry in the School Register is to be discarded. In this case, the certificate granted by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is an un-impeachable document and as such, the date of birth of the applicant should be changed on the basis of the said documents.

Ld. Counsel for the applicant submits that the applicant had no occasion to seek correction of his date of birth before coming to know the recording of his actual date of birth in an unimpeachable contemporaneous documents like Horoscope and the Birth Certificate issued by the Lohia Matri Seva Sadan and also the Birth Certificate issued by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The applicant discovered the Horoscope from the abandoned family papers kept at the ancestral home only in the year 2012 and the application for correction of date of birth was submitted by the applicant on the basis of the said documents within a short span of time and as such the authority concerned should have considered the application for correction of Date of Birth of the applicant.

Ld. Counsel for the applicant submits that the authority concerned cannot sit tight over the application of the applicant for months toget