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It is contended that the Committee ought to have taken into consideration the document in respect of birth extract of father of the petitioner wherein entry of birth is recorded as 13.04.1933 and an entry in respect of caste in the said extract has been taken as 'Chhatri'.

Learned Counsel for the petitioner also contended that the Committee ought not to have discarded the school admission extract pertaining to the petitioner wherein the entry has been corrected as 'Chhatri' and the correction has been carried out on the basis of certificate issued by Tahsildar dated 13.10.1977. It is contended that the Secondary School Code permits such correction in respect of school admission record and as such no serious doubt can be raised in respect of said document. Learned Counsel, relying upon a decision rendered by the Apex Court in the case of Gayatrilaxmi B. Nagpure v. State of Maharashtra , contended that appreciation of evidence by the Committee is unsatisfactory and the evidence tendered by the petitioner is more than sufficient to substantiate his status claim.

16. Learned Counsel for the petitioner vehemently contended that procedure is laid down in the Secondary School Code to carry out corrections in the original school record. Learned Counsel places reliance on Clause 26.4 of the Secondary School Code and contends that there is a power vested in the school authorities to correct the mistakes. Clause 26.4 of the Secondary School Code reads as below:

26.4 Application for change or correction of date of birth, name, surname, caste, etc. as entered in the General Register shall be entertained from or on behalf of a pupil who is attending a school. Such application shall not be entertained from or on behalf of a pupil, who has left the school, as the same amounts not only to a change in the entries in the General Register but also to a change in the School Leaving Certificate. However, for the purposes like an admission to another educational institution the School Leaving Certificate is relied upon as an evidence for name, surname, caste, date of birth, etc., and hence in bona fide cases where wrong spelling of a word or an obvious mistake of the type mentioned in Sub-rule 3 above is noticed any time after issue of the School Leaving Certificate and the same is required to be corrected so as to be consistent with the corresponding entries in the General Register of the school or those in the School Leaving Certificate issued by the previous school, such applications shall be entertained. The procedure to be followed in such cases is laid down in Appendix Six.

4. Other Backward Classes Castes which have been declared as belonging to the other Backward Classes by Government from time to time.

It would thus be clear on perusal of relevant provisions contained in Secondary School Code that for effecting change in the entries in relation to caste, a specific procedure has been laid down and such changes can be effected only for the reasons recorded in paragraph 13(i) to (v) of Appendix Six.

18. In the instant case, obviously for effecting change in the school register, no procedure, as laid down in Secondary School Code, was followed, nor there was any apparent reason for effecting such change, as laid down in para 13 of Appendix Six of the Secondary School Code. The entry appears to have been changed on the basis of a certificate issued by Taluka Executive Magistrate. It is quite clear that the Taluka Executive Magistrate does not possess any authority to certify the caste for the purposes of effecting change in the basic school record, so also school authorities are not possessed of any authority to effect change in the basic school record without observing the procedure as laid down under the Secondary School Code. Any change, which is effected without following procedure, as laid down in Secondary School Code, would have to be considered as an interpolation and fabrication of the original record without due authorisation and shall not be taken note of. In the instant matter, it cannot be said that the inference drawn by the Committee for rejecting the documentary evidence in the form of basic school record pertaining to petitioner, to be erroneous. The change which has been effected in the original school record, without observing the procedure as laid down in the Secondary School code, cannot be taken note of and no evidenciary value can be attached to such entries, which are taken in violation of the procedure prescribed in that behalf.