HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NAGESH BHEEMAPAKA WRIT PETITION No. 3667 OF 2019

O R D E R:

The facts of the case are : petitioner was initially appointed as Assistant Executive Engineer in Public Health & Municipal Engineering Department and was allotted to G.H.M.C. in 1986. He joined duty on 22-01-1986; at that time, his date of birth was recorded as 16-08-1962 both in figures and words. Later on, he was promoted as Deputy Executive Engineer, Executive Engineer and Superintending Engineer in which post he is presently working.

1.1. It is the case of petitioner that Bona fide Certificate issued by Modern K.G. & Upper Primary School, Kachiguda, Hyderabad where he studied from Class I to VII, Birth Certificate issued by Jangaon Municipal Council and relevant Employee details issued by the authorities of Respondent Corporation way back on 17-08-1994 (both in figures and words) and 20-08-1996 etcetera would go to show that his date of birth is 16-08-1962. Subsequently, pursuant to A.P. Reorganization Act 2014, petitioner is stated to have submitted option for Telangana State along with all the service particulars mentioning date of birth as 16-08-1962. At that time, the 2nd respondent had scrutinized the factual accuracy and certified the option form and documents submitted by him and communicated the verified data to the GA (SR) Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh and now he is taking ‘U’ turn and stated that his date of birth is 14.02.1961. Thereafter, Government of Andhra Pradesh vide Notification dated 27.08.2015 issued tentative allocation lists of State cadre employees of ENC public health. Consequently the Government of India, Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pensions, Department of Personnel & Training issued Order dated 12.09.2016 by exercising powers conferred under Section 77(2) of A.P. Reorganization Act, 2014 allocating him to Telangana State and his name reflected at Sl. No.22 with date of birth as 16.08.1962, so also in A.P. Gazette.

1.2. Strangely, now after 32 years, the 2^nd Respondent vide Memo dated 17-01-2018 as there is a discrepancy in the date of birth, asked petitioner to produce S.S.C. Original Certificate, stating that failure to submit the said Certificate for would be presumed that date of birth is 14-02-1961 and entry in the Service Register and other records would be corrected as per the above date of birth. Similarly, Memo dated 04-04-2018 was issued to which petitioner is stated to have submitted representation on 20-04-2018. Notwithstanding the same, yet another Memo dated 16-05-2018 was issued stating that as per the records and the A.P. Gazette Notification dated 06-02-1986 his date of birth is 14-02-1961 and that if he does not submit original S.S.C. Certificate, the same should be treated as final notice.

1.3. Petitioner draws attention of this Court to Section

78 of the 2014 Act which is as follows:-

“ 78.(1) Nothing in this section or in section 77 shall be deemed to affect, on or after the appointed day, the operation of the provisions of Chapter 1 of Part XIV of the Constitution in relation to determination of the conditions of service of persons serving in connection with the affairs of the union or any state;

Provided that the conditions of service applicable immediately before the appointed day in the case of any person deemed to have been allocated to the state of Andhra Pradesh or to the State of Telangana under Section 77 shall not be varied to his disadvantage except with the previous approval of the Central Government.” Further, the competent authority has not issued orders altering the date of birth after due process of law and as such impugned proceedings issued is totally unauthorized, void ab initio.

1.4. While the matter stood thus, the 2^nd Respondent issued order dated 04-01-2019 confirming his date of birth as

14-02-1961. In the said proceedings, it is mentioned that the Student Verification Certificate issued by All Saints School, Gunfoundry and as per Age Certificate issued by the Additio