HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NAGESH BHEEMAPAKA WRIT PETITION No. 23555 OF 2019

O R D E R:

The case of petitioner is that he passed SSC in March, 1983 and was appointed in the 1^st respondent – Singareni Collieries Company Limited on 19-12-1985. As per the SSC certificate, his date of birth is 14-05-1967 and he is entitled to be continued in service up to 31-05-2027, however, it was wrongly entered in service records as 26 years as on 01-11-1985, as a result, he was forced to retire effective from 01-11-2019. Petitioner is therefore, stated to have submitted several representations right from 15-05-1989, 16.10.2012, 07.04.2016 duly enclosing the copies of SSC certificate and the authorities assured him that his grievance would be resolved in due course of time. During 2017, the 4^th respondent asked him to submit original SSC Certificate, accordingly, he submitted the same and thereafter, his representation was forwarded to the office of the 3^rd respondent, who, vide letter dated 27-09-2018 directed the 4th respondent to send original SSC memo, so as to refer the same to the Board of Secondary Education, Hyderabad, for ascertaining its genuineness. At that juncture, the 4^th respondent sent his original SSC memo to the office of the 3^rd respondent for change of his date of birth in the Employee Personnel Record vide letter dated 30-08-2019. Despite, so far, nothing resulted positively. However, in turn, a notice was displayed on the notice board stating that petitioner would be retiring from service from 01-11-2010. Hence, he approached this Court.

According to petitioner, as per Implementation Instruction No.76, date of birth of the existing employees has to be reviewed as per SSC Certificate issued prior to the date of initial appointment. Admittedly, he passed SSC much prior to the date of initial appointment, therefore, his date of birth has to be corrected as 14-05-1967 instead of 26 years as on 01-11-1985 and that he is am entitled to be continued in service up to 31-05-2027.

2. The General Manager of the Respondent Company filed the counter to the effect that petitioner was appointed in the respondent Company as Badli Filler underground on 20-12-1985 and subsequently, was promoted as SDL/LHD Operator and posted to work at KTK-8 incline. At the time of his initial appointment, he did not submit any proof pertaining to his age/date of birth. As per the rules of the respondent company, he was referred to Colliery Medical Officer who assessed his age as 26 years as on 01-11-1985 and accordingly, petitioner's date of birth was recorded as 01-11-1959 in the Initial Medical Examination Report (Form-O) and the same was accepted by petitioner by putting his thumb impression and his date of birth was recorded as 01-11-1959 in service Book and other statutory records. He retired from service on attaining age of superannuation on 01-11-2019. It is contended that petitioner filed this Writ Petition at the fag end of service on 28- 10-2019 ie. 3 days prior to his date of retirement for correction of date of birth and the same was not permitted under law, hence, Writ Petition is liable to be dismissed.

This respondent denied the fact that petitioner submitted several representation right from 15-05-1989 onwards and reiterated his request on several occasions duly enclosing the copies of SSC certificate. It is stated that petitioner was issued the letter dated 31.12.2012 confirming his date of birth as per company records as 26 years as on 01.11.1985 and he would retire from the services of the company on 31.10.2019 which was duly acknowledged by him and he had not questioned the same and the same became final. It is also stated that representation submitted by petitioner dated 21-02-2016 was examined by the respondent company and the letter dated 18-04-2016 was issued informing to submit the reasons for not disclosing the facts pertaining to educational qualifications by producing the SSC certificate at the time of his initial appointment and for n