Alteration of date of birth in service records is impermissible beyond the prescribed period or near retirement.

The Applicant was initially appointed as a Sorting Assistant on December 23, 1984

At the time of entry into service, his Date of Birth (DOB) was recorded as January 5, 1959, based on his secondary education admit card

The Applicant was subsequently promoted to Senior Accountant in 2010

In 2012, the Applicant allegedly discovered a family horoscope and subsequently obtained a birth certificate from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) indicating his DOB as March 10, 1960

On January 24, 2018—approximately 34 years after joining service and less than a year before his scheduled retirement—the Applicant submitted a representation to the respondents seeking a correction of his DOB in the service records

Following the respondents' failure to decide on the representation, the Applicant approached the Tribunal seeking a direction for the correction

1. Whether a change in the date of birth recorded in the service book can be permitted when requested thirty-four years after the initial entry into service and at the "fag end" of the employee's career

The Tribunal primarily applied the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) Office Memorandum dated December 16, 2014, which reiterates Rule 56 of the Fundamental Rules

This rule stipulates that an alteration of DOB can only be sanctioned if the request is made within five years of the employee's entry into government service

The Tribunal further relied on the Supreme Court of India's holdings in Union of India v. Harnam Singh (1993), which established that inordinate delay or laches precludes an employee from seeking DOB corrections

Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited v. T.P. Nataraja Ors. (2021), which affirmed that DOB changes are governed by specific regulations and may be rejected if sought at the "fag end" of service

The Tribunal observed that the Applicant’s request for correction was made in 2018, which is 34 years after he joined the service in 1984

This exceeds the mandatory five-year window prescribed by the DOPT OM dated December 16, 2014

The Tribunal noted that even after the Applicant obtained the KMC birth certificate in 2012, he waited an additional six years before submitting a representation in 2018

Applying the principles laid down by the Supreme Court, the Tribunal held that even if cogent evidence (such as a birth certificate) exists, a correction cannot be claimed as a matter of right after such an inordinate and unexplained delay

The Tribunal distinguished the precedents cited by the Applicant, noting they did not override the specific statutory time limits applicable to central government employees

The court ruled that as per settled law and existing government rules, a request for change in the recorded date of birth cannot be entertained after the expiry of the five-year period from the date of appointment, particularly when sought just prior to superannuation

No costs were awarded