'Choking Docket Of Court' : Supreme Court Imposes 1 Lakh Cost On Man For Repeated Litigations To Change Birth Date In Service Records

The Supreme Court recently imposed a cost of Rs.1 lakh on an engineer who initiated multiple cases before different forums seeking change in date of birth recorded in his service records. It was remarked that the petitioner had been "flogging a dead horse" and these type of cases choke the dockets of the court. 

"Such type of litigation is choking the dockets of the Court as the claim of the petitioner had been examined by different forums and at least three times by this Court and no merit was found at any stage", said a bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Rajesh Bindal.

To state the facts of the case, the petitioner was serving as an Engineer. His date of birth was recorded in service records as 10 April, 1962. Apparently, he came to know in 1999 that his date of birth was erroneously recorded, inasmuch as it should have been 23 April, 1964 in place of 10 April, 1962.

As such, he filed a civil suit in 2007 seeking change of date of birth in his matriculation certificate and also in his service record. But the same was dismissed. Being aggrieved, he filed an appeal before the District Judge, which was also dismissed. He filed a Second Appeal before the High Court of Himachal Pradesh. which was dismissed in 2018.

Being dissatisfied, the petitioner filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court in 2012, which came to be dismissed. He preferred a review petition against the order, but the same was also dismissed.

Thereafter, the petitioner learnt from an RTI reply that in the records of Registrar Death and Birth, his date of birth had been corrected as 23 April, 1964. After obtaining the corrected date of birth certificate, he filed a writ petition before the High Court seeking directions to authorities to change his date of birth in his school and service records.

The High Court dismissed this petition in 2022. Surprised by the issuance of the new birth certificate, despite the petitioner failing to get relief from various courts, the High Court directed an enquiry by Deputy Commissioner, Kangra. It was held that the writ petition was barred by the principle of res judicata. The High Court was inclined to impose cost on the petitioner, but refrained, noting that he was represented by a legal aid counsel.

Aggrieved by this order, the petitioner again approached the Supreme Court. This SLP was also dismissed. Meanwhile, the enquiry directed by the High Court revealed that the new birth certificate was liable to be cancelled as being invalid. Yet, the petitioner filed a review against the 2018 order of the High Court. When the same was also dismissed, he filed the present case before the Supreme Court.

After going through the material, the Supreme Court observed that the date of birth was sought to be changed by the petitioner after nearly 35 years, having spent more than 10 years in service.

Opining that his claim was in contravention of settled law, the Court expressed dismay at the 8 rounds of litigation pursued by the petitioner.

"[The] petitioner is a qualified engineer and not an illiterate person who could not appreciate/understand the merits of his case or the consequences of eight rounds of litigation...we find no merit in this Special Leave Petition, hence, the same is dismissed".

Dismissing the plea, the Court directed that the petitioner deposit cost of Rs.1 lakh with the AIIMS Poor Patients Fund within a period of three months.

Case Title: BALBIR SINGH v. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SLP(C) No. 19097-19098 / 2024

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 689

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