IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.7690 of 2000 SAPUTANI DEVI & ORS Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS ----------- 7 19.08.2008 The original petitioner was deceased during pendency of the writ application and has been substituted by his wife and son as legal heirs. The original petitioner came with a prayer for correcting his date of birth to read as 17.1.1942 in place of 1.1.1941 recorded in the service book and which prayer had been rejected by order dated 14.1.2000. The petitioner claims to be a Matriculate in the year 1960. He was appointed as a Constable in the Bihar Military Police on 21.4.1964. On the date of appointment he was a Matriculate but no date of birth was recorded in the service book. The petitioner signed the service book without his date of birth notwithstanding that his matriculation certificate was already available with him. The explanation that he did not consider it necessary to have his date of birth recorded in the service book at the time of appointment as per the matriculation certificate, since matriculation at that time was not a relevant qualification for appointment does not impress this Court. The service book extract at Annexure 1 has been presented in a truncated manner. The petitioner has chosen to withhold the first page of the service book which contains details of educational qualifications. From the service book it appears that the entry of the date of birth was made in the year 1977. It is his case that he came to know about the entry of the date of birth and he immediately made a representation for its correction. The pleadings contain no details of the source or date of such knowledge and neither has the date of the representation been stated. The impugned order however notices that the petitioner had made the application for correction in the date of birth at the fag end of his service. The reliance by the petitioner on the order of this Court in CWJC No. 4985 of 1996 is of no assistance to him as each case shall depend on its own facts. On the facts of this case, the Court is not satisfied of the bona fides of the petitioner and a horde of question remained unanswered. If there had been no controversial issues the matriculation certificate simpliciter may have been final. In CWJC No. 471 of 1997 the facts were fundamentally different inasmuch as the qualification of matriculation was acquired after appointment. In the entirety of the facts and circumstances this Court is not persuaded that the issues are uncontroversial so as to grant reliefs. The rejection of the Court to interfere shall not inhibit the respondents from a process of cross verification from the Bihar School Examination Board of the matriculation certificate granted to the deceased vide Annexure 4, on an application to be preferred by the legal heirs and in the event that the genuineness of the same be confirmed the authorities shall then proceed to re-decide the issue. The writ application stands disposed. Snkumar/- (Navin Sinha,J.)