IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN
(APPELLATE JURISDICTION)
PRESENT:
MR. JUSTICE GULZAR AHMED, C.J.
MR. JUSTICE IJAZ UL AHSAN
MR. JUSTICE SAYYED MAZAHAR ALI AKBAR NAQVI
CIVIL PETITION NO. 4428 OF 2019
(Against the judgment dated 31.10.2019 of
the Balochistan Service Tribunal, Quetta
passed in Appeal No.490/2018)
Muhammad Khaliq Mandokhail
…Petitioner(s)
Versus
Government of Balochistan through Chief Secretary, Civil
Secretariat, Quetta and another
…Respondent(s)
For the petitioner(s): Mr. Muhammad Shoaib Shaheen, ASC
For the respondent(s): Not represented
Date of hearing: 16.02.2021
…
JUDGMENT
SAYYED MAZAHAR ALI AKBAR NAQVI, J.- The instant petition
under Article under Article 212(3) of the Constitution of Islamic
Republic of Pakistan, 1973, has been filed by the petitioner calling in
question the judgment of the Balochistan Service Tribunal, Quetta
dated 31.10.2019 whereby the Service Appeal filed by him seeking
correction of date of birth in the service record was dismissed.
2. Briefly stated the facts of the matter are that the
petitioner was appointed as Naib Tehsildar in the Revenue
Department of Government of Balochistan on 18.08.1992. He was
promoted to the Post of Tehsildar vide notification dated 07.03.2010
and he was further promoted to BPS-18 vide notification dated
18.10.2017. The date of birth of the petitioner was mentioned in the
Secondary School Certificate as 01.03.1959, while in the service
book, it was registered as 20.12.1963. However, the petitioner
approached the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education,
Quetta to get his date of birth corrected in the Secondary School
Certificate in the year 2014 after the lapse of 22 years. The said
certificate was duly issued to him on 29.12.2014 by correcting the
Civil Petition No.4428 of 2019 -: 2 :-
date of birth of the petitioner from 01.03.1959 to 20.12.1963. The
petitioner after securing correction of date of birth in the Secondary
School Certificate, also got his date of birth corrected from NADRA in
his CNIC. The department issued seniority lists dated 15.10.2014
and 03.01.2018, however, the date of birth of the petitioner was
mentioned as 01.03.1959. The petitioner being aggrieved by the
seniority lists duly issued by the department filed objections before
the competent authority but the objections raised by the petitioner
were not addressed and the department paid no heed to it.
Consequently, on 27.09.2018 a notification was issued by the
department regarding the date of retirement of the petitioner, after
attaining the age of superannuation, with effect from 28.02.2019
basing his date of birth as 01.03.1959. Against the notification of
superannuation, the petitioner filed departmental appeal which was
rejected vide order dated 02.01.2018. Being aggrieved by the
rejection of departmental appeal, the petitioner preferred service
appeal before the Balochistan Service Tribunal, Quetta, which was
dismissed by the Tribunal vide judgment dated 31.10.2019. Hence
this petition for leave to appeal.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner inter alia contends
that in the service book the date of birth of the petitioner was rightly
mentioned as 20.12.1963 and according to law, the first date of
birth entered in the service record has to be presumed to be the
correct date of birth; that the learned Tribunal has failed to take into
consideration Rule 11 of the Balochistan Civil Servants
(Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) Rules, 2009, according to
which the date of birth of a civil servant once recorded at the time of
joining the government service shall be final and no alteration
therein shall be permissible; that the learned Tribunal has also not
considered that the petitioner’s date of birth recorded in the
matriculation certificate was corrected by the Board by issuing a
duplicate certificate. He lastly added that while passing the
impugned judgment, the learned Service Tribunal has erred in law,
therefore, the same is not sustainable in the eyes of law.
4. We have heard learned counsel for the petitioner and
have perused the available record.
Civil Petition No.4428 of 2019 -: 3 :-
5. We have noticed that the petitioner was appointed as
Naib Tehsildar on 18.08.1992. The academic credentials of the
petitioner clearly reflect that the date of birth was recorded as
01.03.1959 on every document including NADRA record. It was very
surprising that the petitioner moved for correction of his date of birth
after the lapse of 22 years of continuous service in the year 2014.
He approached the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education,
Quetta to get his date of birth changed from 01.03.1959 to
20.12.1963. It is surprising that the Board without any hesitation
proceeded according to the whims of the petitioner and submitted
itself before the desire of the petitioner, although the Board had no
authority to entertain such a request and made alteration of its own.
We have specifically confronted the learned counsel to show us from
the record the material placed before the Board which prompted the
Board to come for the rescue of the petitioner and act according to
the illegal desire of the petitioner. It has been informed that an
affidavit was tendered, which was made basis for conversion of the
date of birth from 01.03.1959 to 20.12.1963. It is established law
that while seeking such like correction, a declaration is sine qua non
which can only be issued by the Civil Court of competent jurisdiction
on the basis of evidence produced during the proceedings regarding
the authenticity of the subject matter. In the absence of any
declaration the Board was not empowered to change the date of
birth. The whole proceedings carried out by the Board are nothing
but squarely smack mala fide at the end of Board as well as the
litigant. The said conduct of the Board is deprecated. As a
consequence the proceedings carried out regarding the change of
date of birth are prima facie based upon an act of Board which is
mala fide based upon extraneous consideration, therefore, any
superstructure raised over it would fall to the ground. As we have
noticed that the whole proceedings were carried out after the lapse
of 22 years of active service, therefore, it can be safely held that the
proceedings carried out by the petitioner were based upon an
afterthought just to prolong the service tenure and it was nothing but
an attempt to continue with the service on the basis of frivolous and
tainted documents which speak volume in relation to its
genuineness. This Court in a number of cases has discouraged
change in the date of birth of a civil servant, which could be for the
Civil Petition No.4428 of 2019 -: 4 :-
purpose of unduly enhancing the tenure of service in employment. In
the case of Ali Azhar Khan Baloch Vs. Province of Sindh (2015 SCMR
456), it has been held by this Court that a civil servant could not
seek alteration in his date of birth at the verge of his retirement. The
material produced and examined by the Tribunal clearly suggests
that the petitioner got changed his date of birth when he was at the
verge of his retirement.
6. Now we will advert to the contention raised by the
learned counsel for the petitioner that according to Rule 11 of the
Balochistan Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer)
Rules, 2009, the date of birth of a civil servant once recorded at the
time of joining the government service shall be final and no
alteration therein shall be permissible. It would be in order to
reproduce the said rule, which reads as under:-
“11. The date of birth of a civil servant once recorded at the
time of joining the Government service shall be final and no
alteration therein shall be permissible, except, where a
clerical mistake occurs in recording the date of birth in the
Service record:
Provided that, no request of a civil servant on this ground
shall be entertained after a period of two years from the date
of such entry in his service record; and all such cases shall
be decided by the Appointing Authority, on the
recommendation of an Enquiry Committee with the following
composition:
1. Senior Member, Board of Revenue Chairman
2. Secretary, S&GAD Member
3. Secretary, Law Department. Member
4. Secretary of the concerned Co-opted Member
Administrative
Department”
7. A bare perusal of the aforesaid Rule makes it
abundantly clear that the date of birth of a civil servant once
recorded at the time of joining of Government service as a general
principle shall be final and would not be altered except (i) there is a
clerical mistake (ii) the change is sought within the period of two
years. This Rule narrows down the scope for change of date of birth
by stipulating that no alteration shall be permissible after the expiry
of the time as mandated in the said rule. Otherwise, the service book
is only a piecemeal and for all intents and purposes it would not be
considered as a complete service record. We have noticed that the
Civil Petition No.4428 of 2019 -: 5 :-
other documents relating to his service record including the
academic record, the CNIC, the seniority lists prepared on different
occasions, the ACRs and the retirement notification, all conjointly
reflect that the date of birth of the petitioner was incorporated as
01.03.1959. The petitioner joined the service on 18.08.1992,
whereas he agitated his grievances in the year 2014 after the lapse
of 22 years. Hence keeping in view the facts and circumstances, it is
clear that the proceedings initiated by the petitioner seeking
alteration in the date of birth while pressing in Rule 11 of the
Balochistan Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer)
Rules, 2009 were intended on the basis of extraneous
considerations just to prolong the service period. The whole
proceedings carried out by the petitioner can be dubbed as tainted
on this score alone. Otherwise no substantial question of law of
public importance within the meaning of Article 212(3) of the
Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, has been raised
before this Court.
8. For what has been discussed above, this petition
having no merit is accordingly dismissed and leave to appeal is
refused.
CHIEF JUSTICE
JUDGE
JUDGE
Islamabad, the
16th of February, 2021
Not approved for reporting
Waqas Naseer/*
