Date of Birth Discrepancy Before Retirement: How Should We Handle This Legal Dilemma?

One of my seniors shared the following case study. Kindly provide your valuable comments on the subject:

Case Study: Date of Birth Discrepancy

One of the workmen joined the company by submitting a Gram Panchayat letter as proof of date of birth at the time of appointment. Now, he will be retiring in two years. At this point, he has brought a primary education certificate to correct the date of birth in service records as proof, which differed by 5 years. Is there any case law to defend this situation? How can we legally dismiss him? Kindly guide us.

Thank you.

As far as I know, there are certain instructions regarding the change of date of birth for government servants. Even then, requests for correction of date of birth at the end of service by certain government servants have been considered by the higher judiciary. However, in the absence of any specific rules in the service regulations or standing orders of any organization in the private sector, I think that the employer cannot reject such a request simply based on the passage of time and the fast approach of the date of superannuation if the correction is based on genuine records.

In this connection, I would like to quote the recent instructions of the EPFO on the matter, and the link is mentioned below:

https://shar.es/amJWU8

Case of Fake Certificate Submission

We have a similar case on hand. A workman joined the organization by submitting a fake school certificate to meet the required age limit of 18 years for employment. He has now submitted his 10th standard Transfer Certificate to correct his date of birth. According to this new certificate, his age at the time of employment was only 16. An inquiry proved that the earlier certificate was fake, which the workman admitted. We have initiated disciplinary action against him, and there will be a token punishment for this fraudulent act before correcting the records.

Therefore, in your case, it is suggested that you ascertain what proof he initially provided for his date of birth. If it is a genuine case, you may follow the advice of the learned senior expert, Sri Umakanthan, sir.

Regards,
V. Sridhar

Dear members,

I'm afraid there is no conclusive act or Supreme Court judgment as to which document should be relied upon in cases like this. Most offices may decide to rely on the SSLC after thorough verification of its genuineness. It may not be appropriate to make decisions based on letters from panchayat/VAO/MLA/MPs, etc. Based on what I know, most appointments consider the SSLC as the basic document, and any other document deviating from this would challenge the appointment decision itself. When such disputes arise towards the end of one's service, it becomes even more complicated.

It may be advisable for HR to obtain and file a sworn affidavit from the employee on their first and every appointment, stating that they will not dispute the documents and credentials based on which the appointment was made. As pointed out by experts, there have been several Supreme Court judgments on such disputes in government/quasi-government services. I see no reason why the same judgments cannot be applied in other instances, as the logic and analogy behind those judgments are very similar.

According to me, the law is well settled that the date of birth cannot be corrected at the fag end of the career. Reference may be made to the following judgments of the Supreme Court:

1. Hindustan Lever Ltd vs S N Jadhav, 2001 (98) FJR 681.
2. State of UP vs Smt Gulaichi, 2003 (98) FLR 891.
3. Mohd. Yunus Khan vs UPPCL, 2008 (119) FLR 808.
4. State of Haryana Vs Satish K. Mittal, 2010(2) SCC (L&S) 740.

You must ask him why the primary education certificate had not been submitted all these years. You may also examine whether the certificate is genuine or not.

In the first instance, lodge an FIR in the name of the employee for providing fake documents. You are not bound by law to accept the documents from the employee unless there is a direction from the court. The DOB provided by the employee at the beginning of employment is final.

Legal Considerations for Date of Birth

In general, the DOB is legally considered in all forums, i.e., Birth certificate issued from the office of Registrar of Birth & Death, DOB mentioned in SSC/HSC Certificate, or DOB in Passport. Do not accept the document; let the employee knock on the door of the court for a direction.

Correction of Date of Birth for Central Government Employees

The norm (not a statutory rule, but an administrative instruction) that is in vogue for Central Government employees is that any correction in the date of birth needs to be sought within five years of the initial appointment. No such request is entertained during the fag end of the service.

However, there is no cause for criminal action if an employee, at the fag end of his career, seeks a change of DOB based on another document. Such discrepancies could have occurred due to innocent reasons. A couple of decades back, people were not prompt in registering births, and schools, especially those in villages, also never insisted on birth certificates while admitting children. The present-day HR functionaries ought to be aware of the ground realities in our country.

Dear All,

Please peruse the attachment - School Leaving Certificate, valid proof of age - Supreme Court.