|
The Himachal Pradesh High Court recently dismissed an appeal filed by a government employee, Satya, who sought correction of her date of birth in official service records more than 17 years after induction, holding that such requests at the fag end of service cannot be entertained.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Justice Ranjan Sharma, while pronouncing its order on August 14, 2025, upheld an earlier judgment of a Single Judge who had rejected Satya's plea for altering her date of birth from January 6, 1969 to October 24, 1969. The Bench noted that Satya had joined the Jal Shakti Vibhag as a Junior Engineer on April 25, 2000. However, her request for correction was made only in July 2017--well beyond the two-year period prescribed under Clause 7.1 of Chapter VII of the Himachal Pradesh Financial Rules, 1971. Quoting the Supreme Court's ruling in Union of India vs Harnam Singh (1993) and subsequent cases, the High Court reiterated that belated claims for alteration of date of birth are barred, especially when made towards the end of service. "Such belated requests cannot be considered at this stage. The appellant is bound by her own stand, having admitted during civil proceedings that she came to know of the discrepancy only in 2014. Therefore, she cannot now fall back on a representation allegedly made in 2002, which was never substantiated," the Bench observed in its 37-page judgment. The Court also pointed out that Satya had filed a civil suit in 2015 for correction of her birth records but failed to implead her employer, a lapse which weakened her claim. The decree obtained against the Education Board, the judges said, did not entitle her to automatic correction of service records. Rejecting arguments that the state failed to maintain records properly, the High Court held that the appellant's delay and laches were fatal to her case. "The view taken by the learned Single Judge does not suffer from any infirmity or illegality warranting interference," the Division Bench ruled, dismissing the Letters Patent Appeal (LPA No.542 of 2025). With this, the orders of the government authorities dated April 11 and May 19, 2023--refusing the correction--stand upheld. (ANI)
|
