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8. Based on the corrected School record, respondent no.2 had issued corrected SSC examination certificate by mentioning his correct date of birth as 07.06.1997. The respondent no.3 had forwarded proposal of correcting the date of birth of the petitioner in the 12 th examination record.

9. However, by the impugned communication dated 08.09.2020, respondent no.1 i.e. Deputy Director of Education, Nagpur has turned down the request of the petitioner citing the reason that correction in date of birth is not permissible in view of Rule 26.3 of the Secondary Schools Code.

12. The learned AGP is ad idem with the petitioner on the said issue. Nevertheless, a bare look at the impugned communication dated 08.09.2020 itself indicates that respondent no.1 had misinterpreted the provisions of Rule 26.3 of the Secondary School Code.

13. Bare look at Annexure-A, which is birth certificate of the petitioner indicates his date of birth as 07.06.1997. His school leaving certificate issued by Indira Primary School also reveals his date of birth as 07.06.1997. The only error appears to have been committed by respondent no.5 in the Leaving Certificate of the petitioner, wherein his date of birth has been shown as 07.06.1996, which continued in the leaving certificate issued by respondent no.4.

16. Rule 26.4 of the Secondary School Code contemplates :-

"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 bonafide 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 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."

19. Consequently, the impugned order needs to be quashed and set aside as it has not been passed in consonance with Rule 26.4 of the Secondary School Code.

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20. Accordingly, the petition is allowed by passing the following order :-

ORDER