-1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 4897 OF 2009 Bala Saheb Yashwant Bhosale ... Petitioner versus The State of Maharashtra and others ... Respondents Mr. S.D. Dharmadhikari for the petitioner. Mr. V.S. Gokhale, AGP, for respondent Nos. 1 and 2. Mr. A.M. Kulkarni for respondent No.3. CORAM: P.B. MAJMUDAR & R.M. SAVANT, JJ. DATE: JULY 01, 2010. P.C. By this petition, the petitioner has challenged the decision of the Chief Officer dated 5th January, 2009, by which the Chief Officer came to the conclusion that the birth date i.e. 1­9­58 mentioned by the petitioner at the time of joining employment is not correct and as per the verification of the School Leaving Certificate it was found that the birth date of the petitioner is 1­6­1954. Accordingly, the said date of birth has been entered in the service record of the petitioner. 2. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that at the time of his appointment, the petitioner had produced the extract from the births and deaths register maintained by the Municipal Council wherein his date of birth -2- was shown as 1­9­1958. He, therefore, submitted that the Chief Officer could not have corrected the said birth date on the basis of School Leaving Certificate. 3. In our view, there is absolutely no substance in this petition. It is not in dispute that the brother of the petitioner made an application to the Executive Magistrate, Walva, Islampur for taking entry of petitioner’s date of birth in the births and deaths register maintained by the Municipal Council. The concerned Magistrate held an enquiry and directed the Municipal Council to record the date of birth of the petitioner as 01­09­1958 in the births and deaths register maintained by the Municipal Council. The said date was entered as per the application of the brother of the petitioner. It is required to be noted that at the time of joining duty, the most authentic document which was required to be produced is the School Leaving Certificate. In the instant case, the petitioner has not produced the same and when the Council came to know about the said fact at the time when the petitioner sought to avail of the assured progress benefit scheme for which the petitioner produced the School Leaving Certificate, it realised that as per School Leaving Certificate the date of birth of the petitioner was 1­6­1954. Accordingly the said mistake was corrected and entry in his service record was corrected by showing his date of birth as 1­6­1954. It seems that the petitioner, only with a view to get benefit of four years extension of service, made an attempt by filing an application in the year 1985 to the appropriate authority maintaining the register of births and deaths and at his -3- instance the birth date of 1­9­58 was entered. The said births and deaths register could not be relied upon for the purposes of the birth date of the petitioner and rightly the Chief Officer made reference to the School Leaving Certificate of the petitioner. The petitioner having not produced the School Leaving Certificate at the time of joining the employment now cannot take advantage of the entry in the register of births and deaths maintained by the Municipal Council. 4. The learned counsel for the petitioner has drawn our attention to a decision of this Court in the case of Vasudha Gorakhnath Mandvilkar vs. City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd., reported in 2008 (5) Mh. L.J. In the said case the register of the Parishad showed that the entry of the birth of the petitioner therein to have been made on the date of her birth itself. However, in the instant case, the entry as regards date of birth was made after a considerable period of time i.e. in the year 1985. Moreover, in the said case there was some other material to substantiate the petitioner’s case. Hence, in our view, the said judgment is of no assistance to the petitioner. 5. Considering the aforesaid aspect, we do not find any substance in the above petition which is accordingly dismissed. P. B. MAJMUDAR, J. R.M. SAVANT, J.