- (1.) The petitioner-Banshi Lal S/o Mangilal Nai, initially appointed on 15.6.1973 as Work-charge Helper and later on promoted as Vehicle Driver on 4.7.1978 in the then Rajasthan State Electricity Board, now respondent No. 1 Ajmer Vidhyut Vitran Nigam Ltd., Ajmer (for short Nigam'), had filed this writ petition in this court on 29.3.2003 for quashing of the impugned order Annex. 8 dated 22.3.2003, whereby, he was sought to be retired from the service upon achieving the superannuation age of 58 years on 30.6.1997 on the basis of his date of birth 1.7.1939 originally recorded in the Service Book maintained by the respondent Nigam. While admitting the writ petition, the coordinate bench of this Court on 2.4.2003 stayed the operation of the impugned order dated 22.3.2003 and accordingly the petitioner continued to serve the respondent Nigam as per his claimed date of birth 1.7.1948 and retired accordingly during the pendency of this writ petition on 30.6.2006 and, thereafter, died on 9.11.2009 and hence the legal representatives of petitioner, his wife Smt. Shanti Bai and two sons, Gehrilal and Suresh Chandra were taken on record. The petitioner claimed in the writ petition that at the time of entry in the service in 1973, inadvertently his date of birth was recorded as 1.7.1939 in the Service Book and he claimed that the only evidence with him regarding his date of birth was his Horoscope, which showed his date of birth as 24.7.1946 and later on he also produced the Health Certificate Annex. 2 dated 2.8.1978 issued by the Medical Jurist of General Hospital, Udaipur with his representation dated 4.11.1996 for collection of his date of birth entered in his Service Book and accordingly the Assistant Engineer of the then respondent Board, Rail Magra determined his date of birth as 1.7.1948 and, therefore, he was due to retire on 30.6.2006 but the impugned order Annex. 8 dated 22.3.2003 sought to prematurely retired him w.e.f. 30.6.1997 and, therefore, he had to approach this Court by way of present writ petition.
(2.) The respondents filed reply to the writ petition and vehemently contested this writ petition inter alia on the ground that the Assistant Engineer had no authority and power to determine the date of birth of the petitioner and no such correction in Service Book at his instance could be made without proper approval of the Chairman of the respondent R.S.E.B. vide Circular Annex. R/2 dated 17.7.1996 and the originally entered date of birth 1.7.1939 was rightly so entered in the Service Book and, therefore, retirement order Annex. 8 dated 22.3.2003 was correct and justified and deserves to be upheld and the petitioner under the interim order of this Court had wrongly been allowed to continue in service upto 30.6.2006, since the application for vacation of ex-parte stay order dated 2.4.2003 was not allowed and instead vide order dated 11.10.2003 the matter was set down for final hearing on 21.11.2003, but thereafter, for one reason or the other, the writ petition could not be heard and, therefore, subsequent pensionary benefits and other retiral dues also deserve to be computed only according to his correct date of retirement i.e. 30.6.1997 treating his date of birth as 1.7.1939 as entered in his Service Book.
(3.) The respondents have also produced the original Service Book of the petitioner before this Court in which the date of birth 1.7.1939 appears to have been entered at the time of preparing the said Service Book way back on 7.6.1975 with the same ink and later on the said date 1.7.1939 was cut off and 1.7.1948 was entered as the date of birth by the said Assistant Engineer (O & M) R.S.E.B. as per the Health Certificate issued by the Medical Jurist, as aforesaid, a copy of which is placed as Annex. 3 with the writ petition, which date was again held to be wrongly entered without the approval of the chairman and Managing Director, Ajmer Vidhyut Vitra Nigam Ltd. vide Annex. R/3 dated 27.3.2003 & the date of birth 1.7.1939 entered initially in the Service Book of the petitioner was to be treated as the date of birth for all kinds of service matters and accordingly Annex. 8 dated 22.3.2003 order of retirement was passed.;