Central Administrative Tribunal - Patna
Ram Jas Singh vs Sail on 20 November, 2025
-1- TA/051/00005/2019
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL
PATNA BENCH
CIRCUIT SITTING, RANCHI
TA/051/00005/2019
Reserved on : 17.11.2025
Pronounced on : 20.11.2025
CORAM
Hon'ble Mr. Justice Narendra Kumar Johari, Member (J)
Hon'ble Mr. Kumar Rajesh Chandra , Member(A)
Ram Jas Singh, S/o Late Gulely Singh, resident of Chasnala South Colliery,
P.O. & P.S. Chasnala, District- Dhanbad.
........Applicant.
- By Advocate(s) :- Shri Dilip Kumar Das
-Versus-
1. The Steel Authority of India Limited, TISCO Steel Plant through its
Chairman, SAIL Limited Ispat Bhawan, Lodi Road, New Delhi-110003.
2. The C.G.M. (C&J) Chasnala Colliery Complex Central Office Collieries
Division, SAIL, Chasnala, P.S.- Patherdih, Chansnala- Jharkhand-828135.
3. C.G.M (P&A), Office of the ED (CO) Sail Officer's Colony, Collieries
Division, Chasnala, Dhanbad, P.O.- Chasnala, P.S.- Patherdih, Dhanbad-
828135.
4. AGM(P), Chasnala Colliery Complex, Central Office Collieries
Division, SAIL Chasnala Dhanbad, Chasnala, P.S.- Patherdih, Dhanbad-
828135.
5. The Manager P&A Chasnala Colliery Complex, Central Office
Collieries Division, SAIL Chasnala, P.O.- Chasnala, P.S.- Patherdih-
Jharkhand - 828135.
Digitally signed by SURYAROOP KABI
SURYAROOP DN: C=IN, O="CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL, PATNA BENCH", OU=govt,
Phone=4f29e5d1dcfbce8b0afeb88c04f365f9394705d2f5ab832fd6c09841fe7c96ed,
PostalCode=800001, S=Bihar, SERIALNUMBER=
20d9f640c92cc412e72af8cc564e5b863168ef75a1eadc65bafc0b4758f5dd33, CN=
SURYAROOP KABI
KABI
Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document
Location:
Date: 2025.11.20 14:21:14+05'30'
Foxit PDF Reader Version: 2025.2.0
-2- TA/051/00005/2019
6. Deputy Manager (P&A), Chasnala Colliery Complex, Central Office
Collieries Division, SAIL, Chasnala, P.O. Chasnala, P.S.- Patherdih,
Jharkhand-828135.
.......Respondents.
By Advocate(s) :- Prabhat Kumar Singh
Ms. Milan Singh
ORDER
Per Kumar Rajesh Chandra, A.M.:- This case has been transferred from Hon'ble High Court of Jharkhand vide order dated 11.07.2019 in WP(S) No. 1927 of 2010 and numbered as TA/051/00005/2019 in this Tribunal. The reliefs as prayed in the Writ Petition are as under:- -
"(i) Quash the notice of superannuation dated 05.11.2009, issued by respondent no. 3, whereby and where under the petitioner has been noticed to be superannuated from the service of the respondent company w.e.f. 31.05.2010;
(ii) To issue/pass appropriate order(s), direction(s) upon the respondents concerned for making necessary correction in the service records of the company in regard to the petitioner's date of birth and allow him to continue in service till 31.01.2014, on the basis of his middle school pass certificate of the year 1969.
AND During pendency of this writ application be kind enough to stay the operation of the impugned letter of superannuation dated 05.11.2009 (Annexure-4) AND/OR May pass such other order(s) which may be deemed fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of this case AND For this the petitioner shall ever pray."
Digitally signed by SURYAROOP KABISURYAROOP DN: C=IN, O="CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL, PATNA BENCH", OU=govt, Phone=4f29e5d1dcfbce8b0afeb88c04f365f9394705d2f5ab832fd6c09841fe7c96ed, PostalCode=800001, S=Bihar, SERIALNUMBER= 20d9f640c92cc412e72af8cc564e5b863168ef75a1eadc65bafc0b4758f5dd33, CN= SURYAROOP KABI KABI Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Location:
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-3- TA/051/00005/2019
2. Since no separate petition has been filed by the applicant after transfer of this case to this Tribunal, the facts narrated by the applicant in the Writ Petition are summarised as follows:-
i. The applicant was appointed by the respondent company (IISCO) on 06.05.1972 and thereafter in due course he was designated/promoted as Dumper Operator in the year 1982. It is submitted that at the time of his appointment in the year 1972 he was a non-matriculate and as such on being asked to produce proof of age, the applicant produced his Middle School Pass Certificate of the year 1969 before the authorities. (Annexure-1).
ii. It is submitted that after having produced his middle school pass certificate there was no reason for the petitioner to disbelieve that the same would not have been recorded in his service record and as such the petitioner never made any request or representation for the correction of his date of birth till 07.01.1998 (Annexure-2) when he was served with a letter signed by the authorities concerned whereby the applicant for the first time after his appointment was informed that in the service records of the company there is no proof of his date of birth. Accordingly, the applicant was asked to apply for the change of such date of birth by appearing before the Age Determination Committee on 20.01.1998 by filing an application form provided by the respondents. The applicant then appeared before the said Committee on 19.01.1998 and mentioned his date of birth on the basis of his Middle School pass Certificate, i.e. 03.01.1954.
iii. After his appearance before the said Committee the applicant was under Bonafide belief and impression that his date of birth has been accepted by the respondent authorities as 03.01.1954 and has been recorded in the records of the company accordingly. As such it is Digitally signed by SURYAROOP KABI SURYAROOP DN: C=IN, O="CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL, PATNA BENCH", OU=govt, Phone=4f29e5d1dcfbce8b0afeb88c04f365f9394705d2f5ab832fd6c09841fe7c96ed, PostalCode=800001, S=Bihar, SERIALNUMBER= 20d9f640c92cc412e72af8cc564e5b863168ef75a1eadc65bafc0b4758f5dd33, CN= SURYAROOP KABI KABI Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Location:
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-4- TA/051/00005/2019 submitted that the applicant had no occasion to raise this issue during the intervening period. The applicant was however surprised and shocked to receive the impugned letter/notice of superannuation dated 05.11.2009 (Annexure-4) according to which he would attain his 60 years of age on 11.05.2010 and would be superannuated w.e.f. 31.05.2010.
iv. The applicant has alleged that issuance of aforesaid notice of superannuation whereby treating applicant's year of birth as 1950 is totally whimsical, illegal, arbitrary and discriminatory since as per letter of respondents of the year 1998 itself the respondent company had no record available with regard to the date of birth of the applicant because of which only he was directed to appear before the Age Determination Committee.
v. The applicant further submits that on receipt of aforesaid notice of superannuation he made representation on 05.01.2010 (Annexure-
5) and thereafter again on 18.02.2010 (Annexure-5/1) to the concerned respondent for correction of his date of birth in the service records as per the relevant documents and as per prescribed rules and also requested to allow him to superannuate from his service as per his actual date of birth.
vi. According to the applicant, respondents are bound by the provisions of NCWA-III (Annexure-6) which provides for a procedure for the review/correction of the date of birth of an existing employee and as per the said procedure the respondents are bound to carry on the correction in respect to the date of birth of the applicant on the basis of his middle school pass certificate which is admittedly of prior date than the date of his appointment.
vii. It is contended by the applicant that when the respondents failed to discharge their duty by not making necessary changes in the records of the company with regard to applicant's date of birth even Digitally signed by SURYAROOP KABI SURYAROOP DN: C=IN, O="CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL, PATNA BENCH", OU=govt, Phone=4f29e5d1dcfbce8b0afeb88c04f365f9394705d2f5ab832fd6c09841fe7c96ed, PostalCode=800001, S=Bihar, SERIALNUMBER= 20d9f640c92cc412e72af8cc564e5b863168ef75a1eadc65bafc0b4758f5dd33, CN= SURYAROOP KABI KABI Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Location:
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-5- TA/051/00005/2019 though applicant had made such request on 19.01.1998, they cannot take a plea that the applicant had approached them at the fag end of his service.
viii. While submitting that the law relating to the date of birth with regard to respondent organisation has already been settled by this Hon'ble High Court in catena of judgments/decisions, prominently in the Full Bench judgment reported in 2007(3) JLJR 726 and 2007 (3) JLJR 68 (Annexure-7 & 7/1 & 7/2) the applicant approached the Hon'ble High Court with the prayers as mentioned in para-2 above.
3. Written statements and rejoinder have been filed by the respective parties also after transfer of this case to this Tribunal.
4. In the written statement the respondents have supported their contention of applicant's date of birth in the year 1950 on the following grounds:-
(i) The applicant himself at the time of his joining on 16.05.1972 declared his year of birth as 1950 with his signature (Annexure R/1).
(ii) At the time of his promotion as Dumper Operator in the year 1984 the applicant himself filled his Bio Data Form with his signature in which he declared his date of birth as 11.05.1950 (Annexure-
R/2).
(iii) On the applicant's request dated 18.02.2005 (Annexure- R/3) with regard to his application of loan from Bank of India, Kandra Branch, Dhanbad, the Chief Personnel Manager (C), Chasnalla Colliery, Dhanbad vide letter 18.04.2005 (Annexure- R/3/1) informed the bank regarding the date of birth of applicant as 11.05.1950 giving a copy of the same to the applicant and that Digitally signed by SURYAROOP KABI SURYAROOP DN: C=IN, O="CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL, PATNA BENCH", OU=govt, Phone=4f29e5d1dcfbce8b0afeb88c04f365f9394705d2f5ab832fd6c09841fe7c96ed, PostalCode=800001, S=Bihar, SERIALNUMBER= 20d9f640c92cc412e72af8cc564e5b863168ef75a1eadc65bafc0b4758f5dd33, CN= SURYAROOP KABI KABI Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Location:
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-6- TA/051/00005/2019 the applicant never disputed the same at that relevant time. The respondents have further mentioned that the applicant approached the Hon'ble High Court after 5 years from the aforesaid letter.
The respondents have cited the judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited Vs. T.P. Nataraja & Ors (Civil Appeal No. 5720 of 2021) in support of their contention with regard to change of date of birth. They have further placed reliance on the OM issued by Govt. of India, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, New Delhi dated 19.05.1993 which provides that a request for alteration in date of birth can be made by a Government servant only within 5 years of his entry into Government Service. The respondents have accordingly prayed for dismissal of the OA as not maintainable.
5. The applicant has filed rejoinder and denied the contention of the respondents made in their written statement. It is further submitted that the applicant has not filed any application/form himself and as such the earlier counter affidavit filed by the respondents in the Hon'ble High Court of Jharkhand suggests that the respondents have no record/documents regarding the date of birth of the applicant. The applicant has referred to clause 4.4 of the Personnel Manual wherein rules regarding determination of date of birth have been prescribed and since the applicant is a non-
matriculate at the time of entering the service his school certificate from the educational institution will be accepted where the employee was studying. The applicant has further submitted that the old identity card Digitally signed by SURYAROOP KABI SURYAROOP DN: C=IN, O="CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL, PATNA BENCH", OU=govt, Phone=4f29e5d1dcfbce8b0afeb88c04f365f9394705d2f5ab832fd6c09841fe7c96ed, PostalCode=800001, S=Bihar, SERIALNUMBER= 20d9f640c92cc412e72af8cc564e5b863168ef75a1eadc65bafc0b4758f5dd33, CN= SURYAROOP KABI KABI Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Location:
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-7- TA/051/00005/2019 and new Identity Card and PAN Card issued by the respondents company to the applicant also shows no mention of his date of birth. It is also alleged that in the employees data maintained by the respondents company, the date of appointment of applicant has been shown as 16.05.1972 but date of Birth's column is completely blank whereas in the case of other employees the date of birth has been mentioned (Annexure A/11). The applicant has also enclosed a copy of order dated 16.09.2010 passed in WP(S) No. 4138/2010 wherein the similarly situated employee was allowed to continue on his post on the basis of class VII passed certificate.
6. The learned counsel for the parties during the hearing basically argued on the basis of their respective pleadings.
7. We have heard the learned counsels for the parties and perused the materials on record carefully and considered the matter in its entirety.
Thereafter, we have observed as under:--
(i) The applicant wants his date of birth to be changed from 11.05.1950 to 03.01.1954 on the basis of his Middle School pass Certificate submitted by him before the Age Determination Committee. However, we note that the applicant at the time of his joining on 16.05.1972 and also on promotion as Dumper Operator in the year 1984 had himself filled his Bio Data Form with his own signature in which he declared his date of birth as 11.05.1950 (Annexure-R/2). Considering the procedure for determination/verification of the age of the employees and for resolution of disputed cases of service records (Annexure-A/6), it was agreed that in cases where instead of date of birth, year has Digitally signed by SURYAROOP KABI SURYAROOP DN: C=IN, O="CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL, PATNA BENCH", OU=govt, Phone=4f29e5d1dcfbce8b0afeb88c04f365f9394705d2f5ab832fd6c09841fe7c96ed, PostalCode=800001, S=Bihar, SERIALNUMBER= 20d9f640c92cc412e72af8cc564e5b863168ef75a1eadc65bafc0b4758f5dd33, CN= SURYAROOP KABI KABI Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Location:
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-8- TA/051/00005/2019 been recorded 1st July of the year will be deemed to be the date of birth.
(ii) It is also a fact that the applicant never disputed his date of birth when the Chief Personnel Manager (C), Chasnalla Colliery, Dhanbad informed the bank with regard to his date of birth as 11.05.1950 for grant of loan from Bank of India (Annexure R/4).
(iii) The applicant is harping on the point that in the employee's data as at Annexure A/11 of the rejoinder there is no mention of the applicant's date of birth which, according to the learned counsel for the applicant, may have been erased. This data is complete in respect of all the other names of employees with the sole exception being the data pertaining to the applicant. So the contention of the learned counsel for the applicant is that there is no record of the date of birth of the applicant in the respondents' company. But this Annexure has been appended to the rejoinder of the applicant, so the onus of proving its authenticity lies on the applicant. It has not been a part of the main application so it has not been replied to by the respondents and they cannot be held responsible for this. On query, learned counsel for the applicant could not prove the genuineness of the said Annexure nor could he satisfactorily answer as to how this blank column in respect of his name goes on to prove that his date of birth is 03.01.1954.
(iv) The applicant has not levelled and proved any allegation of any malice against the respondents as to why will they produce a fake or forged document with respect to the applicant. The Respondent officials of SAIL have relied upon the document transferred to the by IISCO where the applicant was initially employed. The applicant subsequently became an employee of SAIL after IISCO was taken over by the SAIL.
Digitally signed by SURYAROOP KABISURYAROOP DN: C=IN, O="CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL, PATNA BENCH", OU=govt, Phone=4f29e5d1dcfbce8b0afeb88c04f365f9394705d2f5ab832fd6c09841fe7c96ed, PostalCode=800001, S=Bihar, SERIALNUMBER= 20d9f640c92cc412e72af8cc564e5b863168ef75a1eadc65bafc0b4758f5dd33, CN= SURYAROOP KABI KABI Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Location:
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(v) The principle of natural justice has not been violated as the applicant has been duly informed of his date of superannuation well before the actual date of the same. He was also granted the opportunity to get his contention examined by the "Age Determination committee".
(vi) The order of Hon'ble High Court of Jharkhand as enclosed by applicant in the TA is not applicable in the instant case since in that case the consistent claim of the petitioner was that he had passed the Middle School Examination and produced the same at the time of his appointment. The petitioner in the said case before the Hon'ble High Court had in fact produced the Middle School Certificate issued by the Bihar School Examination Board along with the Admit Card issued by the Board at the said time. Therefore, the case is clearly distinguishable from the facts of the instant TA under adjudication.
8. In view of the above observations, we hold that the TA is completely devoid of any merit and accordingly the decision of the respondents with regard to date of birth of the applicant and his superannuation on the basis of his recorded date of birth need not be interfered with. The TA is dismissed accordingly. No order as to costs.
(Kumar Rajesh Chandra) (Justice Narendra Kumar Johari)
Member (A) Member(J)
Srk.
Digitally signed by SURYAROOP KABI
SURYAROOP DN: C=IN, O="CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL, PATNA BENCH", OU=govt,
Phone=4f29e5d1dcfbce8b0afeb88c04f365f9394705d2f5ab832fd6c09841fe7c96ed, PostalCode=800001, S=Bihar, SERIALNUMBER= 20d9f640c92cc412e72af8cc564e5b863168ef75a1eadc65bafc0b4758f5dd33, CN= SURYAROOP KABI KABI Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Location:
Date: 2025.11.20 14:21:14+05'30' Foxit PDF Reader Version: 2025.2.0