Govt Employee Cannot Alter Date Of Birth In Service Records After 5 Years Of Submitting Credentials: J&K High Court

The court also held that no alteration in the date of birth of the employee can be made by the administrative department unless the employee has approached the Government within a period of five years and demonstrated that such a mistake was genuine and bona fide.

A bench of Justice Vinod Chatterji Kaul held that it was not the case of the appellant that he had approached the department within the period of five years. The service record was made only after he submitted the said documentation to the concerned department. The court observed that any person applying for a government job cannot be heard saying that he had no knowledge about his credentials/testimonials, which he submitted when he applied for the job. The court said the plaintiff wanted to change his date of birth to show himself younger by five years, ostensibly to get five more years of service and service benefits.

The court held that the present case was governed by the Civil Service Regulations of 1956, which clearly mention that the date of birth shall be recorded based on the matriculation certificate, which, in this case, was produced by the appellant at the time of joining his services and was also signed by him in the service records.

The court said that it was the plea of the appellant that his actual date of birth was 1958 rather than 1953, which, if accepted, would not be prudent because the appellant had given his matriculation exam in 1970. It noted that would mean he was only 12 years old when he qualified for the matriculation exam, which is improbable, as the rule at that time required a minimum age of 16 years to appear for the exam.

BACKGROUND:
The appellant submitted his credentials after joining his service, which showed the date of birth as 1953 and was also signed by him in the service records. The appellant stated that decades later, he realized that the same was not true and presented a medical certificate in order to justify such claims.

The appellant approached the civil court for a declaration; however, the trial court rejected the suit as being barred by limitation and the service rules, which prohibit altering the date of birth after five years of submitting the credentials. An appeal filed by the appellant before the Additional District Judge was also dismissed.

The court said that once the authorities had accepted the credentials of the appellant, the date of birth recorded in those credentials was considered to be true. The same record could not be altered after waiting for 40 years, even by relying on the medical certificate.

The court also relied on the Supreme Court judgment Union of India v. C. Rama Swamy (1997), in which it was held that even if genuine records are disclosed, they cannot be grounds to set aside the service record decades later.

The court said that if the plea of the appellant was accepted to the effect that he was actually born in 1958, it would mean that he was only 12 years old when he qualified for the matriculation exam, which is highly improbable.

Accordingly, the court upheld the trial court order and dismissed the appeal.

APPEARANCE

Mr M.Y.Bhat, Senior Advocate with

Mr Sajid Bhat, Advocate For Appellants

Mr Mir Majid Bashir, Advocate Mr Jehangir A. Dar, GA for Respondents

Case-Title: Ghulam Nabi Sofi VS State of J&K, 2025

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (JKL) 41