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SCA/3406/2009 4/ 4 ORDER
IN
THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
SPECIAL
CIVIL APPLICATION No. 3406 of 2009
=========================================================
BHUPATSINH
DALSUKHBHAI PATELIYA - Petitioner(s)
Versus
STATE
OF GUJARAT & 3 - Respondent(s)
=========================================================
Appearance
:
MR
VIKRAM J THAKOR for
Petitioner(s) : 1,
GOVERNMENT PLEADER for Respondent(s) : 1,
RULE
SERVED for Respondent(s) : 1 - 4.
NOTICE SERVED BY DS for
Respondent(s) : 2 - 3.
MR AD OZA for Respondent(s) :
4,
=========================================================
CORAM
:
HONOURABLE
MR.JUSTICE AKIL KURESHI
Date
: 24/12/2010
ORAL
ORDER
Petitioner’s
school leaving certificate showed his date or birth as 6.5.78. His
birth certificate maintained by the Registrar of Birth and Deaths,
however, records his date of birth as 25.12.82. The petitioner is
seeking to correct the birth date recorded in school leaving
certificate in conformity with the birth certificate. He
approached the school authorities and when his request was not
granted, he filed civil suit being Regular Civil Suit No.20/08 in
the court of learned Principal Senior Civil Judge, Godhra who
dismissed the suit by judgment dated 30.1.2009. The petitioner has
therefore approached this Court with necessary prayers for
correction of birth date in the school leaving certificate.
Counsel
for the Board drew my attention to the decisions of Division Bench
of this Court wherein view is taken that in such cases, it is not
open for the school authorities to correct the date of birth once the
student has left the school. However, he has to approach the
concerned Magistrate for necessary declaration and if such
declaration is made, school authority would have to make the
consequential correction. In an order dated 24.6.2009, in Special
Civil Application No.4423 of 2001 and connected matters, referring to
the decision of Division Bench dated 11.8.2003 passed in Letters
Patent Appeal No.699 of 2003, Division Bench of this Court made the
following observations:
“These
four petitions have been placed before us on a reference made on
17.09.2001 by a learned Single Judge in view of the conflicting views
taken by two other Single Judges of this Court.
“The
question raised is `whether the School Registers maintained on the
basis of applications made, shall be varied at the instance of the
student after the student leaves the school’.
Regulations
governing the secondary schools, i.e. Gujarat Secondary Education
Regulations, 1974, do not permit such variation after a student
leaves the school. This is the view that was taken by learned Single
Judge, Hon’ble Ms. Justice Rekha Doshit. Contrary views were taken
by Hon’ble Mr. Justice M.S. Shah in Special Civil Application No.7009
of 1999 and Hon’ble Mr. Justice Pradip Kumar Sarkar in Special Civil
Application No. 1274 of 2001.
This
issue has already been dealt with by a Division Bench of this Court
in Letters Patent Appeal no.699 of 2003, vide order dated 11.08.2003.
The Division Bench has taken the view that once a student leaves the
school, correction in school records of a student can be carried out
only by a Magistrate, First Class, having jurisdiction.
In
these Special Civil Applications, corrections are sought for change
of caste as well as change of names. In view of the aforesaid
decision of the Division Bench dated 11.08.2003, such corrections can
be carried out only by a Magistrate, First Class, having jurisdiction
on the subject matter, and not by the school authorities.
We
fully agree with the view expressed by the Division Bench in Letters
Patent Appeal No.699 of 2003, and dispose of all these matters
accordingly. All the same, the petitioners, who are desirous of
carrying out necessary corrections, shall approach respective
Magistrates, First Class, having jurisdiction.
With
the above observations, all the Special Civil Applications stand
disposed of.
Notice
discharged.”
In
view of the above, it would open to the petitioner to approach the
competent Magistrate seeking necessary declaration. If such
application is filed, the same should be decided in accordance with
law on the basis of the material that the petitioner may produce,
with respect to which I express no opinion. It is, however,
clarified that the learned Magistrate shall decide the same unmindful
of the observations made in the judgment dated 30.1.2009 passed by
the learned Principal Senior Civil Judge.
The
petition is disposed of accordingly.
(Akil
Kureshi, J.)
(vjn)
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