Illiteracy no excuse to challenge birth date after years: CAT



Illiteracy no excuse to challenge birth date after years: CAT

The Central Administrative Tribunal has held that illiteracy of an employee cannot be a ground for challenging the correctness of his or her date of birth in office records after a considerable time period.

The Tribunal dismissed a petition, refusing relief to a woman employee of MCD who challenged an office order of 2000 in which her date of birth was changed.

"Even if the applicant could not read the office order, it was expected of her to have it understood through some literate person. By keeping quiet and not raising any objection, she has in fact acquiesced the alteration in the date of birth," the Tribunal said.

It said the application regarding the correctness and validity of change in the date of birth should have been filed within one year from the date the office order.

"Except that she is illiterate, no plausible explanation has been given by her as to what prevented her to challenge the office order in time," the Tribunal said.

It said the application was time-barred. "The applicant cannot revive the period of limitation on the ground of her retirement based on such date of birth which was duly recorded in the service records. What cannot be done directly cannot be done indirectly," the Tribunal said.

Earlier, the MCD contended that the change in date of birth made in 2000 cannot be allowed to be challenged at the time of her retirement in 2008 when all these years she kept quiet and did not raise any objection.

The applicant, Laxmi Bai, said she was illiterate and did not understand the order of 2000 served upon her.

The Tribunal did not agree with her contention and dismissed the petition.

According to her affidavit, her date of birth is July 15, 1948 which had been altered to July 15, 1950 in the official records in 2000 on the basis of medical certificate.

Source: Economic Times

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