IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of Decision : February 07, 2025 Khwaish Aggarwal .. Petitioner Versus The Central Board of Secondary Education and others .. Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HARSIMRAN SINGH SETHI Present: Ms. Twinkle Verma, Advocate and Ms. Navneet Kaur, Advocate, for the petitioner.

Mr. B.S. Seemar, Advocate, for respondents No. 1 to 3.

HARSIMRAN SINGH SETHI J. (ORAL)

1. In the present writ petition, the petitioner has sought quashing of order dated 09.01.2025 (Annexure P-16) issued by respondent No.3 vide which the application for correction in the date of birth of the petitioner in her matriculation mark-sheet- cum- certificate has been declined along with a prayer that direction be issued to the respondents to change petitioner’s date of birth in the said certificate from 22.12.2006 to 11.04.2007 in view of the date of birth certificate dated 24.02.2009 (Annexure P-1) as well as in view of the rectification of the correct date of birth in school record by the school authorities.

2. As per the averments made in the petition and the facts which have come on record, at the time when the petitioner was born, her parents were residing in Jalandhar and thereafter, shifted to Ferozepur. During the period when the parents of the petitioner were residing in Ferozepur, there was a matrimonial dispute and the mother of the petitioner was to move to her parental house in Nagpur along with the petitioner and during the said time got prepared a birth certificate through a Mediator wherein, the date of birth of petitioner was mistakenly recorded as 22.12.2006. Given the fact that now that at the said time, the mother of the petitioner was in Nagpur and as claimed by her under stress owing to matriculation dispute, she could not get the same date of birth corrected from appropriate authorities and as the petitioner was required to be admitted in a school at the said time, the mother of the petitioner used the same certificate wherein, wrong date of birth was recorded for the purpose of admission in the school in the State of Maharashtra. Subsequently, the parents of the petitioner reconciled and the mother of the petitioner along with her shifted back to Chandigarh and since the date of birth at the school in the State of Maharashtra was initially recorded as 22.12.2006, the transfer certificate issued at the time of leaving the school in the State of Maharashtra also depicted petitioner’s date of birth as 22.12.2006 which was then also recorded in the record of school authorities in Chandigarh wherein, the petitioner then continued her studies. Thereafter, the petitioner changed her school to Carmel Convent School, Sector-9, Chandigarh wherein also, the same date of birth i.e. 22.12.2006 continued.

3. During this while, the parents of the petitioner got issued a correct birth certificate as per the medical records of the concerned hospital.

The said birth certificate was got issued on 24.12.2009 which has been appended with the present petition as Annexure P-1 wherein, the date of birth of petitioner, who was then named as Tamanna Aggarwal, is shown as 11.04.2007. Further, in the year 2012, the parents of the petitioner got her name changed from Tamanna Aggarwal to Khwaish Aggarwal after fulfilling all the requisite formalities necessary for the same.

4. Since the petitioner had to appear in matriculation examination in the year 2023 therefore, keeping in view the same fact, the parents of the petitioner approached the school authorities for getting recorded the correct date of birth as per the date of birth certificate dated 24.12.2009 (Annexure P-1) which depicted petitioner’s previous name vide application dated 24.09.2022 and the same application was kept pending by school authorities and no action qua the same was taken and in the interregnum, the petitioner appeared for matriculation examination in the year 2023 and cleared the same and was issued the matriculation certificate appended with