Mere discrepancy in dates of birth not fraud to terminate service: HC

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court has observed that mere discrepancy in the dates of birth in different educational records of a government servant, lacking of any element of fraud, misrepresentation or deliberate concealment, won’t be “fraud or wilful misrepresentation” so as to terminate services.

With the above observation, Justice Manju Rani Chauhan quashed the dismissal order passed against a government assistant teacher in Mau while directing the state authorities to permit him to resume his duties forthwith. “The inference of fraud, which entails grave civil consequences cannot be drawn on the basis of equivocal circumstances or mere inconsistencies in record, howsoever inconvenient they may appear,” said the court.

Petitioner Vijai Kumar Yadav was appointed as assistant teacher in a junior basic school of Mau in 2014.

However, in 2018, an RTI application was filed seeking his educational credentials. Pursuant to that, it was revealed that an earlier 1998 high school record showed his date of birth as July 2, 1984, whereas his Purva Madhyama certificate of 2001 recorded it as July 7, 1987.

Relying on this alleged discrepancy, the Basic Shiksha Adhikari in Mau dismissed him from service on June 27, 2019 and directed lodging of an FIR against him.

Challenging the dismissal order, Yadav filed the present petition contending that the high school certificate had neither been relied upon nor produced by him at any stage of the recruitment process. It was submitted that it was neither utilized for seeking admission to the BTC Training Course, 2010.