Delhi High Court
Bhagwat Dayal vs Cbse & Ors on 24 January, 2011
Author: Sanjiv Khanna
Bench: Chief Justice, Sanjiv Khanna
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ LPA NO. 783 OF 2010
Bhagwat Dayal ....Appellant
Through Mr. Avadh Bihari Kaushik, Advocate.
VERSUS
CBSE & ORS. ....Respondents.
Through Mr. Atul Kumar, Advocate for
respondents 1 & 2.
CORAM:
HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJIV KHANNA
1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be
allowed to see the judgment?
2. To be referred to the Reporter or not ?
3. Whether the judgment should be reported
in the Digest ?
% Order
24.1.2011
The impugned order dated 20th October, 2010 dismisses the Writ
Petition(Civil) No. 2352/2010 filed by the appellant Bhagwat Dayal for
modification of his date of birth from 18 th March, 1984 to 18th March,
1985 and name of his father in the 10th class Board Examination
Certificate issued by Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE).
2. The learned counsel for the appellant has submitted that the said
corrections are justified and the writ petition should have been allowed in
view of decisions in Km. Meenu vs. Director, CBSE dated 3.1.2003 in
LPA 783/2010 Page 1 of 8
WP(C) NO. 5624/2002, Para (Km.) vs. Director, CBSE, 111(2004) DLT
573 and Dhruva Parate vs. CBSE & Anr. dated 23.3.2009 in WP(C) No.
3577/2008 and the unreported judgment of the Supreme Court delivered in
Civil Appeal No. 5999/2010 titled Manoj Kumar vs. Govt. of NCT Of
Delhi, dated 26.07.2010.
3. A similar issue was considered by a Division Bench of this Court in
W.P.(C) No. 3774/2010 titled Ms. Jigya Yadav (Minor) (through
guardian/father Hari Singh) vs. C.B.S.E.. The High Court referred to
bye-laws 69.1 of the CBSE Bye-laws which reads as under:-
"69.1 Changes and corrections in Name
(i) No change in name/surname once
recorded in the Board's records shall be
made. However, correction in the name to
the extent of correction in spelling errors,
factual typographical errors in candidate's
name/surname, father's name/mother's
name or guardian's name to make it
consistent with what is given in the school
record or list of candidates (LOC)
submitted by the school may be made.
Provided further that in no case, correction
shall include alteration, addition, deletion
to make it different (except as mentioned
above) from the LOC or the school
records.
(ii) Application for correction in
name/surname will be considered only
within ten years of the date of declaration
of result provided the application of the
candidate is forwarded with the following
documents:
LPA 783/2010 Page 2 of 8
(a) Admission form(s) filled in by the
parents at the time of admission.
(b) The School Leaving Certificate of the
previous school submitted by the
parents of the candidate at the time of
admission.
(c) Portion of the page of admission and
withdrawal register of the school where
the entry has been made in respect of
the candidate.
(iii) The Board may effect necessary
corrections after verification of the
Original records of the school and on
payment of the prescribed fee."
4. In the said case, the name of the parents as per the writ petition was
incorrectly recorded in the school records and accordingly had been
wrongly recorded in the certificate issued by the CBSE. The said writ
petition was rejected after observing that the fault and error was of the
petitioner's parents themselves. They had repeatedly filed forms in which
they had described and given their names. They alone were responsible for
the error or mistake, if any. The aforesaid bye-laws were held to be
reasonable. CBSE had recorded what was mentioned in the school records
consistently. The parents of the child had option and liberty to rectify the
records for more than 10 years i.e. till the child was studying in Class 10
but cannot contrary to bye-law 69.1 ask for amendment/ modification of
their names recorded in the certificate.
LPA 783/2010 Page 3 of 8
5. The decisions of the learned Single Judge in case of Km. Meenu
and Kumari Para (supra) cannot be relied upon in the present case. It may
be noted here that this Court is not correcting or commenting upon the
certificate issued by the Registrar of Births & Deaths under the
Registration of Births & Deaths Act, 1969. Single judges in the said cases
were dealing with the prior bye-laws, which did not have any specific bar
or prohibition or fixed time limit. We are concerned with the Bye-laws
69.1 and 69.2 of the CBSE Bye-laws. Bye-law 69.1 of the CBSE Bye-laws
has been quoted above. There is a bar/prohibition and a time limit has been
fixed in the bye-laws. Bye-law 69.2 which deals with the change or
correction of date of birth, reads as under:-
"69.2 Change/correction in Date of Birth
i. No change in the date of birth once
recorded in the Board's records shall be
made. However, corrections to correct
typographical and other errors to make
certificate consistent with the school
records can be made provided that
corrections in the school records should
not have been made after the submission
of application form for admission to
Examination to the Board.
ii. Such correction in Date of Birth of a
candidate in case of genuine clerical errors
will be made under orders of the Chairman
where it is established to the satisfaction
of the Chairman that the wrong entry was
made erroneously in the list of
LPA 783/2010 Page 4 of 8
candidates/application form of the
candidate for the examination.
iii. Request for correction in Date of Birth
shall be forwarded by the Head of the
School along with attested Photostat
copies of :
(a) Application for admission of the
candidate to the School;
(b) Portion of the page of admission and
withdrawal register where entry of date
of birth has been made along with
attested copy of Certificate issued by
the Municipal Authority, if available,
as proof of Date of Birth submitted at
the time of seeking admission; and
(c) The school leaving Certificate of the
previous school submitted at the time
of admission.
iv. The application for correction in date of
birth duly forwarded by the Head of
school along with documents mentioned in
Byelaws 69.2(iii) shall be entertained by
the Board only within two years of the
date of declaration of result of Class X
Examination. No correction whatsoever
shall be made on application submitted
after the said period of two years."
6. Bye-laws 69.1 and 69.2 were not examined in the case of Km.
Meenu and Km. Para (supra). In the case of Dhruva Parate (supra), the
petitioner therein had appeared in class 10 examination in 2006 and the
writ petition was filed in the year 2008, for change of name from "Dhruva
Pramod Parate" to "Dhruva Parate". The said name was duly recorded by
LPA 783/2010 Page 5 of 8
the school authorities in the register on 25th May, 2006 and thereafter
several requests and reminders were made, but the CBSE did not accede to
the said request. Referring to Bye-law 69, it was stated that the change can
be sought and granted within 2 years. The facts of the said case were,
therefore, entirely different.
7. In Manoj Kumar's case (supra), the Supreme Court examined the
case of the appellant who had been appointed as a Constable (Executive)
in Delhi Police in May, 2007. He had given a date of birth which did not
tally with the date of birth mentioned in the matriculation examination. His
services were terminated. The appellant therein had filed a Civil Suit for
correction of the date of birth mentioned in the matriculation certificate
and the said suit against the Board of Education, Haryana was decreed.
Order of dismissal from service was challenged before the Tribunal. The
Supreme Court in paragraph 9 of the decision observed that as per the
school records, till 6th standard, the appellant's date of birth was the same
as declared at the time of selection in service. It was held that the
appellant's date of birth shown the matriculation certificate was incorrect
and erroneous, in view of the date of birth of appellant's sister. It was also
noticed that Board of Education had corrected the date of birth which was
erroneous. It was observed that the case in question could not be equated
LPA 783/2010 Page 6 of 8
with the cases of government servants who make requests/applications for
change of date of birth at the tail end of their service.
8. In the present case, class 10 certificate is dated 3 rd June, 2000.
Thereafter, the appellant had appeared in the All India Secondary School
Certificate Examination in the year 2003. At that time also, the appellant
did not challenge or ask for change of the date of birth or the name of his
father. The plea taken by the appellant that he could not observe the
aforesaid mistake till January, 2010 when the appellant was appearing in
Civil Services Examination has been rightly not accepted. The appellant
had obtained a certificate from Health Department of Government of
Haryana on 2nd February, 2010 and then had approached CBSE and his
school. Learned single judge has further observed that notices were issued
to three schools where the appellant had studied. One school had stated
that records were not available; another school had stated that no student
by the appellant's name was enrolled with them and the third school where
the appellant was studying when he had appeared in 10 th class
examination, had enclosed copy of admission form dated 21st April, 1999,
extract of the admission withdrawal register and the transfer certificate
dated 31st March, 1999 issued by his previous school. In these documents,
the date of birth was recorded as 18th March, 1984 and not 18th March,
LPA 783/2010 Page 7 of 8
1985. The appellant's father's name was mentioned as Bhim Singh and not
Bhim Sain.
9. For the reasons stated hereinabove, we do not find any merit in the
appeal and the same is dismissed with no orders as to costs.
SANJIV KHANNA, J.
CHIEF JUSTICE JANUARY 24, 2011 KKB LPA 783/2010 Page 8 of 8