HC rejects cop's plea to change birth date in service record

The Bombay High Court has refused to allow a policeman to correct his birth date in the service records on the ground that he was seeking a change at the fag end of his career and not within the five years of his joining service as per rules.
A bench of Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice V K Tahilramani, hearing a plea of Devendra Shinde, noted, "the judgement of the Supreme Court has been quoted extensively (by this court) to emphasise that facts in the present case are strikingly similar and that the petitioner cannot be allowed to change his date of birth at the fag end of his career".

"The petitioner had failed to move the authorities within five years of his entry into service to correct his date of birth. Now that option is not available to him," said the bench in a recent order.
"Even otherwise, his claim that he came to know that his date of birth is incorrectly entered into his service book only in 2012, lacks credibility. Hence, the petition is dismissed," the bench added.
The petitioner had challenged an order of Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) delivered on January 8 this year which had rejected his claim to correct the birth date in his service record.

In the application filed before MAT, Shinde had challenged a letter of March 11, 2014, by which, he was told that his request for change of birth date in his service record from January 1, 1958 to October 1, 1958 is rejected.

Shinde joined service on March 1, 1983, as a police sub-inspector. In his service record, his birth date is stated as January 1, 1958 on the basis of SSC certificate.
Shinde contended that his correct birth date as per SSC certificate is October 1, 1958, and that an incorrect entry was made in his service book. He, therefore, prayed that the birth date may be corrected in his service record.

The Government Pleader submitted that the birth date of the petitioner is January 1, 1958, which is the date given by the petitioner himself and the same is recorded in the service book of the petitioner.
Even on the first page of the service book, the petitioner had himself signed the entries in token of the acknowledgement thereof. Thus, the petitioner's claim that his birth date was wrongly recorded, lacked credibility when he himself acknowledged the same to be correct, the pleader said.
However, the bench noted that Rule 38 of Maharashtra Civil Services (General Conditions of Service) Rules, does not permit any change in the date of birth of a government servant after five years of joining service.