Allahabad High Court
Vijay Kumar vs State Of U.P. Thru ... on 8 July, 2022
Bench: Pankaj Bhatia
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Court No. - 17
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 35356 of 2018
Petitioner :- Vijay Kumar
Respondent :- State Of U.P. Thru Prin.Secy.Secondary Edu. Lucknow And Ors.
Counsel for Petitioner :- Angrej Nath Shukla
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Ashutosh Misra
Hon'ble Pankaj Bhatia,J.
Heard Sri Angrej Nath Shukla, learned Counsel for the petitioner, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel and Sri Ashutosh Mishra, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent no.3.
The present petition has been filed alleging that an error had crept in the High School Certificate granted to the petitioner in respect of his date of birth.
It is claimed that the actual date of birth is 01.07.1990, however, in the High School Certificate, the same has been wrongly transcribed as 01.07.1989 whereas the correct date of birth is 01.07.1990. It is stated that subsequently after passing the 10th and the 12th examination as well as completing his education moved an application in the year 2014 before the respondent no.3 requesting that error in the date of birth crept and the same may be directed to be correct. It is brought on record that the petitioner is not in a government job and is self employed, however, the anxiety of the petitioner is that the Junior High School Certificate issued by the School records a date of birth which is at variance with the High School Certificate and the Intermediate Certificate.
The request of the petitioner for change of date of birth was rejected by the Board pressing Chapter III Regulation 7 of the Uttar Pradesh Intermediate Education Act, 1921 which prohibits the correction after a period of two years.
The Counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance on the judgment of this Court in the case of Anand Singh vs U.P. Board of Secondary Education and others (Special Appeal No.160 of 2014 decided on 11.02.2014 wherein this Court had on an occasion dealt with the scope of Regulation 7 of Chapter III and the Court was of the view that in terms of the proviso to Regulation 7, respect of the requests for correction of marksheet only in respect of the name of the candidate, or the name of the father or mother can be done without any limitation. For the rest errors, it was held that the limitation prescribed would govern the issue.
The Counsel for the petitioner has further placed reliance on the judgment of this Court in the case of Babu Ram vs State of U.P. and another (Special Appeal No.1202 of 2010 decided on 03.08.2010) wherein this Court had held that if the mistake is in the records maintained by the Court, the Regulation 7 could not have applicable.
The Counsel for the petitioner also places reliance on the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of R.K. Jangra vs State of Punjab; LAW (SC) 2009 3 214 wherein Supreme Court in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case had directed for decision on the representation. He also places reliance on the judgment of this Court in the case of Sandeep Kumar vs Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad; LAWS (ALL) 2013 12 98 wherein this Court held that the Regulation 7 is directory and not mandatory. The said case pertains to change of name of spelling.
In the light of the said judgments, it is argued that directions be issued for correction of date of birth as has crept in the High School record. Although the Regulation 7 prescribed for limitation of two years for making an application for change of particulars in the certificate issued by the Board and the proviso to the said Regulation permits the change of name and spelling errors without any period of limitation as held in the case of Anand Singh (Supra).
In the present case, the facts remains that the petitioner has approached for correction after span of about 10 years of having qualified. This fact adequately demonstrates that the petitioner was not vigilant towards his rights and kept sleeping, thus, the petition deserves to be dismissed on the ground of laches alone.
However, as the effect of the discrepancies alleged by the petitioner does not affect in any manner except there being a discrepancy in the Junior High School record, the present writ petition is disposed off permitting the petitioner to file a fresh representation before the institution concerned before whom the petitioner had completed the Junior High School. In case such application an application is filed, the institution in question shall make a necessary corrections taking into account the date of birth as indicated in the High School Certificate and the intermediate Certificate.
Order Date :- 8.7.2022
akverma
