Andhra HC (PreTelangana) P.S. Bheemeswara Rao vs Regional Joint Director Of ... on 30 April, 2003 Equivalent citations: 2003(4)ALT333 ORDER L. Narasimha Reddy, J. 1. The petitioner was appointed as a junior lecturer in History in Andhra Kesari Tanguturi Prakasam Satajayanthi Junior College, Dumpagadapa, Bhimavaram, West Godavari District, (hereinafter referred to as 'The College') vide proceedings dated 14111973 of the President and Correspondent. His date of birth was recorded in the service register as 1811943 on the basis of the date of birth as entered in the S.S.L.C. register. He studied S.S.L.C. in R.C.M. Elementary School, Palaconda, Srikakulam District. According to the petitioner, his actual date of birth was 1841945 and on account of a clerical mistake it was entered as 1811943. 2. The petitioner states that he made representation as early as on 8121973 to the Director, School Education, Government of A.P., Hyderabad for correction of the date of birth and that after prolonged correspondence, the correction was made in the S.S.L.C. register. He filed this writ petition seeking a declaration that the action of the respondents in not correcting the date of birth from 1811943 to 1841945 in the service register on the basis of the entries in the S.S.L.C. register is illegal, arbitrary and unsustainable in law. 3. By the time the writ petition came to be filed, the petitioner was bout to retire from service. He filed W.P.M.P. No. 977 of 2001 seeking direction to the respondents to continue him in service. This Court through its order dated 2512001 declined to accede to the request of the petitioner. 4. Pending writ petition, the second respondent issued proceedings dated 1722001 informing the petitioner that his request for change of date of birth in the service register is not feasible of compliance. The petitioner filed WPMP 5338 of 2001 challenging the proceedings dt. 1722001. This Court ordered the same. Hence, the prayer in the writ petition as it stands now is to declare the proceedings of the second respondent dated 1722001 refusing to correct the date of birth in the S.S.L.C. register. 5. Sri V. Jagayya Sarma, the learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the birth register maintained by the competent Revenue Authorities constitutes the basis and primary evidence in the matter of date of birth of an individual; and the birth extract of the petitioner issued by the competent authority reflects the date of birth of the petitioner as 1841945. The learned counsel submits that once the entry in the S.S.L.C. register was corrected on the basis of birth extract and in that view of the matter, the respondents ought to have corrected the date of birth in the service register. 6. Learned Government Pleader for Higher Education, on the other hand, submits that it is only at the verge of the retirement that the petitioner has come forward with the plea as regards correction of date of birth in the records. It is also his contention that the Government had framed the Andhra Pradesh Public Employment (Recording and Alteration of Date of Birth) Rules, 1984 by amendment through G.O.Ms.No. 94, dated 1531994 prescribing the procedure for correction of date of birth of Government servants and according to the same, even if there exists any conclusive proof to the effect that the date of birth in the school records was not correct, the date of birth cannot be altered in the service register, once the petitioner came to be appointed to the public service. The learned Government Pleader also raised another contention as to the maintainability of the writ petition itself on the ground that the institution in which the petitioner was employed is a Government College and his only remedy is to approach the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal. 7. Before proceeding with the discussion of the matter on merits, the question as to the maintainability needs to be dealt with. The college was taken over by the Government through its orders in G.O.Ms.No. 939, dated 2091978 and G.O.Ms.No. 303, dated 31121996. Had these orders been given effect to and the college stood taken over by the Government, the contention of the learned Government Pleader would have been correct. However, this Court had suspended the said G.Os. In that view of the matter, the taking over did not take place. Therefore the college cannot be said to be a Government college. Hence, the Writ Petition is maintainable. 8. The grievance of the petitioner is about the correction of his date of birth in the service record as well as the correction in S.S.L.C. register. The basis for seeking such correction is the date of birth extract. He was appointed as Junior Lecturer in the year 1973 through orders dated 1121973 in the college. As on the date of appointment, his date of birth in S.S.L.C. record was 1811943. The same was entered i