IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 5797 of 2011 Date of Decision: 13.10.2011 Gourav Vashist ...Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and others ..Respondents. CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURYA KANT 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. Whether to be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Present : Mr. Heman Aggarwal, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. R.D.Sharma, Deputy Advocate General, Haryana for respondent No.1. None for respondents No.2 and 3. **** SURYA KANT, J.(Oral) The petitioner seeks quashing of order dated 17.02.2011 (Annexure P-7) passed by the Board of School Education, Bhiwani rejecting his prayer for correction of his date of birth in Matriculation Certificate from 11.01.1981 to 11.09.1981. The petitioner's precisely case is that he appeared in the matriculation examination held by the Board of School Education, Bhiwani in June, 1995. It is averred that in the Matriculation Detailed Marks Certificate, the date of birth of the petitioner has been inadvertently mentioned as 11.01.1981, though as per the Birth Certificate issued by the Registrar (Birth & Death), Local Area, Rohtak (Annexure P-2), the correct date of his birth is 11.09.1981. CWP No. 5797 of 2011 [2] The petitioner has substantiated his claim by placing on record the birth certificate of his elder brother, namely, Manish Kumar, whose date of birth is 28.10.1979. The petitioner represented the Board authorities to carry out necessary correction but finding no response, he approached this Court by way of Civil Writ Petition No. 241 of 2011 which was disposed of on 06.01.2011 with a direction to the respondents to decide the legal notice served on behalf of the petitioner. Pursuant thereto, the impugned order has been passed by the Board rejecting the petitioner's request for correction in the date of birth on the solitary plea that he was a regular student of Adarsh Senior Secondary School, Arya Nagar, Rohtak and his date of birth mentioned in the matriculation certificate is on the basis of the Examination Form sent by the said school. The aggrieved petitioner has approached this Court again. No one has put in appearance on behalf of the Education Board nor the respondents have filed any reply/affidavit contesting the petitioner's claim despite opportunities. I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner at some length and perused the record. It appears from the Birth Certificate placed on record that the petitioner was actually born on 11.09.1981 though it may be true that the school where he studied inadvertently mentioned his date of birth as 11.01.1981 in the Examination Form. The petitioner's claim is also strengthened by the birth certificate of CWP No. 5797 of 2011 [3] his elder brother. The possibility of word '9' having been written inadvertently as '1' cannot be ruled out. The petitioner is a young student and has sought correction at the earliest, without taking any undue advantage of the date of birth mentioned in his matriculation certificate. Since the specific averments made by the petitioner have gone unrebutted, I allow this writ petition and quash the impugned order dated 17.02.2011 (Annexure P-7) with a direction to the respondent Board to issue a corrected Matriculation Certificate to the petitioner depicting his date of birth as 11.09.1981. The authorities in the Board, however, shall be at liberty to verify the genuineness of the Birth Certificates relied upon by the petitioner as also the fact that these certificates pertain to the petitioner and his brother. Needful shall be done within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. Dasti. 13.10.2011 (SURYA KANT) 'ravinder' JUDGE