Delhi High Court Rejects CBSE Appeal Against Order For Birth Date Correction
The Delhi High Court has observed that the record of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) cannot be at variance with the passport as it would create doubt in the mind of anyone regarding an individual’s employment or immigration.
A division bench comprising Justice Subramonium Prasad and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar said that the citizen of the Country is entitled to a true and correct narration of all necessary and relevant particulars in the public documents that pertain to them.
Reiterating that the CBSE is a record keeper of considerable importance, the Bench said that the matriculation certificate and passport of a person are considered an unassailable and valid proof of date of birth.
The Court was dealing with an appeal filed by CBSE challenging a single judge order concerning the date of birth of one Prema Evelyn D Cruz. She had sought a direction to the authorities to correct her date of birth in the passing certificate of All India Secondary School Examination and any other document relying upon the aforesaid certificate, after recording her correct date of birth. She relied upon the birth certificate issued by the Greater Chennai Corporation.
The CBSE raised grievance regarding the request for the correction in the date of birth in CBSE records being beyond the period of limitation.
It was submitted that as per the Bye-laws of the CBSE, there is a mandate to maintain its records in a particular manner which included the Weeding Out Rules, 1998, which provides for documents to be weeded out or subject to destruction after the passage of ten years. It was contended that there were no records maintained by CBSE in respect of D Cruz.
On the other hand, D Cruz said that the aspect of limitation or weeding out of documents would not come in the way of the CBSE making any correction in the records based on public documents.
Referring to a Supreme Court judgment in Jigya Yadav v. CBSE, the Bench reiterated that public documents, such as an official birth certificate issued by the competent authority, carry a statutory presumption of correctness under the law.
It said that there was no cogent reason for the CBSE to disregard the said document of D Cruz and that the Board is expected to take due notice of such statutory public documents and effect consequential corrections in her records.
The Court said that D Cruz had initiated various steps required for making necessary corrections in all relevant documents and ensuring that they were all in tandem and error-free. Failure to ensure the documents being without errors would have jeopardized the entire future of the Appellant, it said. “If the CBSE record is at variance with the Passport, it could lead to the creation of considerable doubt in the minds of any person who is considering Respondent No. 1 for employment, immigration or for any other purpose,” the Court said.
It added: “There is thus an imminent need to ensure that all official documents are in consonance with each other, as this not only provides certainty regarding specific details contained in public documents but also helps preserve the identity of a citizen, with the date of birth being an essential facet.”
The Court upheld the impugned judgment and rejected CBSE’s appeal.
Counsel for Appellant: Mr. M.A. Niyazi, Ms. Anamika Ghai Niyazi, Ms. Kirti Bhardwaj, Mr. Arquam Ali and Ms. Nohmat Sethi, Advocates
Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Rony O. John and Mr. Arshdeep Singh, Advocates
Title: CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION v. PREMA EVELYN D CRUZ AND ANR
