HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH AND HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE VILAS V. AFZULPURKAR W.P.NO.21807 OF 2009 Dt.16.11.2009 Between: S.Venugopal .. Petitioner And The Director of School Education, Saifabad, Hyderabad and others .. Respondents HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH AND HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE VILAS V. AFZULPURKAR W.P.NO.21807 OF 2009 ORDER: (Per Sri Justice V.Eswaraiah) Petitioner questions the order of the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal in O.A.No.11510 of 2002, dated 3.3.2004, after a long lapse of five years. The petitioner filed the aforesaid O.A. seeking a direction to the respondents to continue him in service up to 26.12.2004 by making necessary correction in the service register, as it was a bona fide clerical error, as corrected by the Director of School Education in the school records. It is the case of the petitioner that his date of birth was recorded in the H.S.C Record and Service Register as 26.12.1944 alone and he joined as Junior Assistant in the office of the Commissioner of Labour on temporary basis on 23.5.1967 and later his services were regularized on 1.3.1974 and he retired from service on 31.12.2002 on attaining superannuation. The case of the petitioner is that he made an application seeking correction of date of birth and the District Educational Officer, Hyderabad on 31.8.1990 recommended for correction of date of birth. When the said date of birth was not corrected, he earlier filed O.A.No.5215 of 1992, which was dismissed on 23.12.1993 for want of jurisdiction. Later, the petitioner filed W.P.No.22736 of 1999, which was disposed of on 2.11.1999 with liberty to approach the Director of School Education seeking appropriate correction of date of birth. Thereafter, it appears that the date of birth was corrected in his H.S.C register as 26.12.1946 instead of 26.12.1944 as per directions of the Director of School Education, Hyderabad, dated 2.9.2002. The petitioner made applications on 12.12.2002 and 20.12.2002 for making necessary corrections in his Service Register and to withdraw the order directing him to retire on 31.12.2002. But no action was taken on the said representations. Therefore, he approached the Tribunal through the present O.A. to take into account his date of birth as 26.12.1946 instead of 26.12.1944 and to continue him for two more years. The said O.A. was dismissed by the Tribunal by order, dated 3.3.2004. Aggrieved by the same, this writ petition has been filed. There is no dispute that his date of birth was entered in the School Register as 26.12.1944 alone. It is not known on what basis he wanted to rectify the date of birth in the School Register alone. He retired on 31.12.2002 and just before three months he got alteration of the date of birth in the H.S.C Register and based on which he seeks to rectify the Service Register. There is no dispute that in the Service Register as well as School Record the date of birth was recorded as 26.12.1944 alone when he joined in service. Only after 35 years and on the verge of his retirement, he has obtained a duplicate transfer certificate of Higher Secondary School record and submits that the entry of the date of birth in the school record as well as service register is by mistake and the said mistake is requires to be corrected. The petitioner has not filed any other document except the duplicate copy of the Higher Secondary School record. Under Rule 2 of A.P.Public Employment (Recording & Alteration of Date of Birth) Rules, 1984 issued in G.O.Ms.No.165, Fin. & Plg. Dept., dated 21.4.1984, every Government employee shall, within one month from the date on which he joins duty, makes a declaration as to his date of birth. On receipt of the declaration made under sub-rule (1), the Head of Office or any other officer who maintains the service records in respect of such Government employee shall, after making such enquiry as may be deemed fit, with regard to the declaration and after taking into consideration such evidence, if any, as may be adduced in respect of the said declaration, make an order within four months from the date on which the Government employees joins service, determining the date of his birth. Provided that in cases where the date of birth as determined under this sub-rule is different from the one declared by the Government employees concerned under sub-rule (1), he shall be given an opportunity of making a representation, before a final order is made. If there is a mistake in entering into the date of birth, that mistake requires to be corrected within four months. Under Rule 4(2) no subsequent variation of the date of birth in the school records shall be relevant for the purpose of service nor shall such variation be a valid ground for ordering an alteration of the date of birth by any Court, Tribunal or other authority. The petitioner has not filed any material with regard to the so-called mistake alleged to have been crept in while entering the date of birth in the service record. Under Rule 5 the cases in which the Government employees have already applied for alteration of their date of birth and which are pending on the date of commencement of these rules, shall be dealt with on the basis of recorded age in school and college records at the time of entry into service. Even in respect of the applications pending before the commencement of the aforesaid Rules prior to 21.4.1984 with regard to the correction of date of birth, the said applications are required to be dealt with on the basis of the recorded age in the school and college records at the time of entering into service. At the time of his entering into service, his date of birth was recorded in the school record as 26.12.1944. Therefore, we do not see any error committed by the Tribunal in dismissing the O.A. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed. ________________ V.ESWARAIAH, J. _________________________ VILAS V. AFZULPURKAR, J. 16.11.2009 kpr