- (1.) HEARD counsel for the parties.
(2.) THE petitioner in this writ application has prayed for issuance of a direction upon the respondents to pay him his full salary and all other admissible service benefits for the period 18.06.1999 to 23.09.2002 during which period he was not allowed to work on the ground that he had superannuated from service on attaining the age of superannuation. Facts of the petitioner's case stated briefly are as follows : Petitioner was appointed under the B.C.C.L. on 17.06.1971 on the post of Minor Loader at the Murlidih Colliery. At the time of his appointment, a service book, referred to as service records, was opened and his date of birth was recorded therein as 09.11.1951. He continued to discharge his duties regularly but to his surprise, sometime in October, 1998 he learnt that the entry in respect of his date of birth in the original service record, has been struck off and in place of the original entry, a wrong date of birth as 17.06.1939 has been mentioned. He promptly filed his protest by way of his representation on 13.10.1998 followed by another representation on 30.10.1998 before the Project Officer, B.C.C.L., Gobindpur Colliery. His several representations remained unheeded and he was served with a letter dated 06.02.1999 intimating him that he would superannuate with effect from 17.06.1999. A similar communication was subsequently forwarded to him on 19.05.1999.
(3.) UNDER such circumstances, he filed a writ application before this Court vide C.W.J.C. No. 941 of 2001. While disposing of the writ application vide its order dated 04.04.2002, this Court directed the respondents to reconsider the petitioner's case after referring the petitioner to the Apex Medical Board to assess his age on the basis of ossification test. In pursuance of the High Court's order, the respondents referred the petitioner to the Apex Medical Board on 11.07.2002. The report of the Medical Board confirmed that his age was assessed as 54 years on 11.07.2002. This, according to the petitioner, was in consonance with the original entry in respect of his date of birth in the service records. ;