Manipur High Court

Request for correction of date of birth at the fag end of service is impermissible.

M INAOCHA SINGH vs STATE OF MANIPUR

Manipur High CourtJUDGMENT: May 26, 20262 MIN READSOURCE JUDGMENT
THE ORIGINAL LAWLENS SUMMARY
01

Facts

The petitioner was appointed as a Driver in the Medical Department, Manipur, on 25.11.1977.

Source reference: p. 2, para. 3

His date of birth (DOB) was originally recorded in his service book and the Manipur Government Employees List (MGEL) as 04.03.1957.

Source reference: p. 2, para. 3

In 2015, nearing retirement, the petitioner approached the Administrative Officer (AO) to correct his DOB to 01.03.1960. The AO issued an order on 05.09.2015 allowing the correction.

Source reference: p. 2-3, para. 3

Subsequently, the Director of Health Services issued an order dated 17.11.2017 retiring the petitioner effective 31.03.2017 based on the original 1957 record.

Source reference: p. 4, para. 5

The petitioner challenged this retirement, claiming he should serve until 28.02.2020 (or 2022) based on the corrected DOB.

Source reference: p. 4, para. 5; p. 5, para. 7
02

Issues

1. Whether the correction of the petitioner's date of birth by the Administrative Officer was based on valid documentation and legally sustainable.

Source reference: p. 7, para. 13

2. Whether a government servant can seek correction of their date of birth at the fag end of their service career.

Source reference: p. 8, para. 14
03

Law Applied

Section 4 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which mandates a minimum age of 18 years to obtain a driving license.

Source reference: p. 5, para. 8

The established legal principle that a government employee is not permitted to seek correction of their date of birth at the "fag end" of their career, especially when they have regularly signed and acknowledged the existing service records throughout their tenure.

Source reference: p. 8, para. 14
04

Reasoning

If the petitioner's DOB were 01.03.1960, he would have been under 18 during the 1977 recruitment DPC, making him ineligible for a driving license and the post of Driver.

Source reference: p. 5, para. 8

The "duplicate" educational certificate used to justify the DOB correction was issued on 04.10.2016, a year after the AO had already issued the correction order in 2015, rendering the AO's order baseless.

Source reference: p. 6-7, para. 10, 13

School authorities (Respondents 3 & 4) filed affidavits stating they had no records to support the certificate and that it was issued in "good faith" based on a photocopy provided by the petitioner.

Source reference: p. 6, para. 9; p. 7-8, para. 12

The Court noted that the petitioner had signed his service book annually since 1977, implying full knowledge of the 1957 DOB entry.

Source reference: p. 8, para. 14
05

Holding

The Court specifically held that the petitioner could not claim a different DOB at the end of his career after decades of acknowledging the original entry.

The Court dismissed the writ petition, holding that the correction order issued by the Administrative Officer was unsustainable as it lacked valid supporting documentation and upheld the impugned retirement order dated 17.11.2017.

Source reference: p. 7, para. 13; p. 9, para. 16
Manipur High Court

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M INAOCHA SINGHvsSTATE OF MANIPUR

Manipur High Court · May 26, 2026

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