Pinaki Chandra Ghose, J. - (1.)Leave granted.
(2.)The present appeal arises against the order of the High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi in Letters Patent Appeal No.90 of 2010 dated Sept. 20, 2010, which was filed against the order dated Dec. 11, 2009 passed by the learned Single Judge in a writ being W.P. (S) No. 496 of 2007 filed by the respondent in the present matter, wherein the court quashed the order dated Aug. 2, 2006 passed by the Project Officer, Jamunia Open Cast Project (hereinafter referred to as 'Project Officer') Area of the Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. (being appellant No. 1 in the present matter), which stated that the respondent will superannuate on Feb. 28, 2007.
(3.)The brief facts leading to the same are as under :
3.1. The respondent joined appellant No. 1, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. ('BCCL'), a 'Government Company' as under Sec. 617 of the Companies Act, 1956, his date of joining as per the impugned order is stated to be March 31, 1973. At the time of joining, his date of birth was recorded as Feb. 15, 1947, in Form 'B', a statutory form stipulated under the Mines Rules, 1955, the basis of recording the same is not clear. The respondent obtained a Secondary School Leaving Certificate issued on Oct. 12, 1979, which indicated that he attended Rajya Samposhit Uchcha Vidyalaya, Baghmara, a Government school in Dhanbad from Jan., 1964 to Aug., 1964. In the said certificate, the date of birth of the respondent is recorded as Feb. 6, 1950, which is in conflict with his date of birth as entered by him in the service records being the aforementioned Form 'B'.

3.2. Subsequently, in 1983, he was transferred to the Jamunia Open Cast Project and as stated, he once again signed the Form 'B' wherein his date of birth was recorded as Feb. 15, 1947 and he allegedly did not raise any objections then.

3.3. In 1986, the respondent passed the Mining Sardarship and in the certificate acknowledging the same his date of birth was recorded as Feb. 6, 1950, corresponding to the date recorded in the aforementioned School Leaving Certificate. Therefore, there existed two sets of records of the respondent's details; first being the Form 'B' register on one hand in which the date of birth was recorded to be Feb. 15, 1947 and second being the Mining Sardar Certificate and the School Leaving Certificate wherein the date of birth was recorded as Feb. 6, 1950.

3.4. In 1987, the National Coal Wage Agreement III (hereinafter referred as 'NCWA III') being Implementation Instructions were put into operation for stabilising service records of employees. Pursuant to Implementation Instruction No. 76, appellant No. 1 provided its employees with Nominee Forms as prescribed by the Implementation Instructions which contained relevant extracts from the service records in the Form 'B' register, thereby enabling the employees to identify any discrepancy or error in the records and get the same rectified as per the prescribed procedure. In wake of the same the respondent became aware of inconsistencies in the records regarding his date of birth, date of appointment, father's name and permanent address; therein the respondent made representations to the Project Officer, Jamunia Open Cast Project for rectification of the abovementioned errors and he specifically sought the incorrect date of birth to be corrected as per the date mentioned in the Mining Sardar Certificate and the School Leaving Certificate. It appears that the concerned authorities rectified the discrepancies regarding the name of the father and the permanent address; however the date of birth and date of appointment remained unchanged. Thereafter, as stated by the respondent, he made a subsequent representation to the concerned Project Officer on July 16, 2006 for correction of the date of birth in the Form 'B' register in accordance with the Mining Sardar Certificate and the same was rejected by the appellant company vide letter dated July 19, 2006.

3.5. The Project Officer vide order dated Aug. 2, 2006 intimated the respondent that he is to superannuate from Feb. 28, 2007. Aggrieved by the same, the respondent filed a writ bearing W.P. (S) No. 496 of 2007 for quashing of the order of superannuation by the Project Officer on the grounds that the date of superannuation has been incorrectly calculated by relying on the erroneous date of birth which should have been rectified in terms of the NCWA III, which provided that the Mining Sardar Certificate and the School Leaving Certificate must be treated as authentic documents by the employer as proof of the date of birth of the employee. The appellant company without challenging the genuineness of the same countered the respondent on the grounds that the Form 'B' register was a conclusive proof of date of birth as it was verified by the signature of the employee being the respondent; and having accepted the entry then, the respondent is not entitled to raise any dispute after twenty years and at the fag end of his service. The High Court while allowing the writ determined that the respondent did not raise such a claim at the fag end of his career, rather such a claim was made in 1987 itself and the appellant company had failed to respond suitably to the dispute raised by the respondent. Thereby, the Court directed the appellant company to conduct an enquiry on the basis of the certificates produced by the respondent and to effectively communicate to the respondent the decision taken together with the reasons assigned within three months of the passing of the order.

3.6. Aggrieved, the appellant company preferred a Letters Patent Appeal, the order in which is impugned herein. The High Court dismissed the appeal having found no merit in the same in light of the clauses in Implementation Instruction No. 76.

3.7. Thereafter, the matter lies before us.