ORAL ORDER

1. Rule. Learned advocates for the respective respondents waive service of notice of rule for and on behalf of the respective respondents.

2. The present writ petition has been filed seeking a direction on the respondent authorities to correct the name and caste of the petitioner in his School Leaving Certificate.

3. The brief facts of the case are as under:

3.1 The petitioner was born on 28.11.2002 in Village Hathab, District Bhavnagar. On 28.05.2020, the respondent No.3 issued a leaving certificate, after completing standard XII by the petitioner, wherein the first name of the petitioner was wrongly mentioned as “Asif” instead of “Ashifbhai” and another mistake has occurred in religion and caste column and instead of “Muslim Khoja”, “Ismaile Agakhan” was mentioned. The petitioner’s representation to the respondent No.2 alongwith the supporting documents to change his first name, religion and caste however, the same was rejected vide order dated 19.03.2021.

4. Learned advocate appearing for the petitioner has submitted that the impugned order passed by the respondent No.2 refusing such request by placing reliance on the Rule 12A(6) of the Gujarat Secondary Education Rules, 1974 (for short “the Rules”) is misconceived. In support of his submissions, he has placed reliance on the order of this Court dated 06.06.2022 passed in Special Civil Application No.17273 of 2021. The reliance is also placed by him on the judgement dated 05.12.2018 passed in Special Civil Application No.4630 of 2018 in case of Vasudev Prahladbhai Patel Vs. State of Gujarat with regard to change in the caste of the petitioner. He has also placed reliance on the School Leaving Certificate of the father of the petitioner at “Annexure-C”, which mentions his caste as “Muslim Khoja” instead of “Ismaile Agakhan”, which is incorporated in the School Leaving Certificate of the petitioner. Thus, he has submitted that the caste is also required to be altered from “Ismaile Agakhan” to “Muslim Khoja” as per the School Leaving Certificate issued to the father of the petitioner.

5. Learned AGP Mr.Trivedi appearing for the District Education Officer has submitted that as per Rule 12A(6) of the Rules, such correction is not permissible, after the petitioner left the school and hence, the impugned order may not be disturbed.

6. Learned advocate Mr.Meet Shah for learned advocate Mr.Oza appearing for the respondent No.4 has submitted that the petitioner is required to produce the original caste certificate of his father for getting the caste altered in the School Leaving Certificate before appropriate authority.

7. Heard the learned advocates for the respective parties and also perused the documents as pointed out by them.

8. As the facts narrated hereinabove, suggest that the petitioner is seeking two corrections in his School Leaving Certificate at page No.13, Annexure-B dated 28.05.2020. The first correction is with regard to change in the name of the petitioner from “Bhayani Asifbhai Aminbhai” to “Bhayani Ashifbhai Aminbhai”. Thus, the petitioner is seeking insertion of alphabet “H” in his first name i.e. Ashif. The Bonafide Certificate issued on 29.10.2021 by the Government Engineering College, Vidhyanagar, Bhavnagar indicates his name as Ashif. The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board Certificate issued to the petitioner in March, 2020 (at page No.29) indicates his name as Bhayani Ashif Aminbhai. Thus, there appears to be clerical error in incorporating the name of the petitioner as “Asif” instead of “Ashif” in the School Leaving Certificate.

9. At this stage, it would be apposite to refer to the observations made by the Coordinate Bench in the judgment dated 05.12.2018 passed in Special Civil Application No.4630 of 2018. The same reads as under:-

“7. Having heard learned advocates appearing for the parties and having gone through the material produced on record, it transpires that respondent No.2 authority has issued Birth Certificate in favour of t