2025 PLP (C (PLC(CS))

MUHAMMAD HASHIM KHAN KAKAR, CJ.

On 21.08.2024, after going through the contents of official note portion and the subject Notification dated 30.05.2022, issued by the Services and General Administration Department ('S&GAD'), Government of Balochistan and its ToRs mentioned therein, it revealed that the same has opened a way for alteration and change of date/s of birth of in service government employees, which mandate otherwise falls within the jurisdiction of competent Court of law and there seems a possibility that a number of in-service government employees might have availed an undue advantage and misuse of law or could have benefited themselves in the garb of subject notification before the Pension Cases Disposal Committee ('PCDC'), instead of availing the due course of law available to them before the appropriate forums; besides the factum of negation and violation of judgments/orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of Pakistan and other apex Courts is also involved into the matter, therefore, while taking cognizance of the matter, the official note was converted into a Constitutional Petition. The office was directed to register and fix the same before DB-I during the course of the day. Meanwhile, notices were issued to the Chief Secretary, Secretary S&GAD, Secretary Finance Department, and Government of Balochistan through the Advocate General Balochistan as well as the Accountant General Balochistan.

2. The Registrar of this Court was also directed to furnish details of all such cases of in-service employees of this Court, who have got changed/ altered their date/s of birth through the decisions of PCDC, as the case may be.

3. Facts of the case are that the District and Sessions Judge/Member Inspection Team High Court of Balochistan, during performance of his duties submitted a note and pointed out that Notification No.S.O (R-II)1(I) S&GAD-2018/1568-1667 dated 30.05.2022 has been issued by the S&GAD, Government of Balochistan, whereby the Government of Balochistan with the prior approval of the Provincial Cabinet dated 02.04.2022 (vide agenda item No.29), had reconstituted the PCDC with the following composition: "(i) Secretary, Finance Department (Chairman) (ii) Accountant General Balochistan (Member) (iii) Deputy Secretary (Pay) S&GAD (Member) (iv) Representative of the Administrative Department Concerned (not below the rank of B-18) (Member) (v) Deputy Secretary (Treasury) Finance Department (Member) (vi) Deputy Secretary (R/A) Finance Department (Member) (vii) The concerned DDO or the Custodian of Service Book (Member) (viii) Section Officer (Pension/SAP) Finance Department (Member) Terms of Reference (TORs): "

1. Any pension case of former employee which cannot be disposed of by the administrative department because of loss/tempering of Service Book, Clerical error/alteration in date of birth or objection raised on the pension case by the Accountant General of Balochistan shall be referred to the Pension Cases Disposal Committee, by the Administrative Department concerned.

2. The Committee will decide/recommend correction of the actual date of birth of in service employees whose date of birth has wrongly been recorded in SAP system.

3. The recommendations of the Committee shall be submitted by the Finance Department to the Chief Secretary for approval"

4. At the very outset, it may be noted that the Service Tribunal has been established in accordance with requirement and provision made in the Constitution. The object to establish Service Tribunal was to provide special forum to civil servants for rectification of the wrong done to them in connection with any term and condition of their services. It may also be noted that Balochistan Service Tribunals Act, 1974 provides self-contained machinery for the determination of questions arising out from the terms and conditions of service of civil services, where law provides a remedy by appeal to another Tribunal fully competent to give any relief, any indulgence to the contrary by any authority, Civil Court, including High Court is bound to produce a sense of distrust in statutory Tribunals. Civil servant cannot be allowed to bypass Service Tribunal on any ground whatsoever.

5. The moot question whether correction of date of birth is part of terms and conditions of service or otherwise? If the answer thereto is in affirmative, then it would conclude the moot question of jurisdiction of PCDC in such matters. While exercising the powers conferred by subsection (1) of section 25 of the Balochistan Civil Servants Act, 1974, the government has made different rules of which Balochistan Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) Rules, 1979 are relevant in the instant case. In the said rules, a new Rule 12-A was added vide Notification No. SRO-II (160)/98-S&GAD-5260-5369 dated 11th December 1988, which reads as under: "12-A. Alteration in the date of birth.

The date of birth once recorded of a civil servant at the time of joining the Government service shall be final and no alteration in the date of birth of a civil servant shall be permissible."

6. The aforesaid Rules of 1979 were repealed and replaced with Balochistan Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) Rules, 2009. Rule 11 of the said Rules deals with correction of date of birth and the same reads as under:- "

11. Alteration in date of birth. 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 Member

4. Secretary of the concerned Administrative Department C-opted Member

7. The above quoted rule manifestly reveals that date of birth once recorded at the time of joining government service shall be final and, thereafter, no alteration in the date of birth shall be permissible. A government servant, after entry into service, acquires the right to continue till the age of retirement, as fixed by the government in exercise of its powers regulating conditions of service, unless the services are dispensed with on other grounds contained in the relevant service rules after following the procedure prescribed therein. The date of birth entered in the service record of a civil servant is, thus, of utmost importance for the reason that the right to continue in service stands decided by its entry in his/ her service record. A government servant, who has declared his age at the initial stage of employment, is of course not precluded from making a request later on for correcting his age. It is open to a civil servant to claim correction of his date of birth, if he is in possession of irrefutable proof relating to his date of birth as different from the one earlier recorded and even if there is no period of limitation prescribed for seeking correction of date of birth, the government servant must do so without any unreasonable delay. The date of birth of the government servant, once recorded in service book etc., cannot be corrected except in the case of a clerical error as the case may be. The aforementioned rule clearly provided that the date of birth/declaration of age made at the time of entry into service shall be deemed to be conclusive as against the government servant, unless he applies for correction of his age within two years from the date of his entry into government service.

8. It may be observed that a tendency has developed, whereby unwarranted claims, attempting to show error in the 'date of birth', are asserted towards retiring age by fabricating or manipulating documents in that behalf. It has become a common practice with the civil servants to file declaratory suits for correction of date of birth when they come to the verge of their retirement just to prolong their tenure of service for enjoying the perks and privileges for a few more years at the cost of other civil servants. After issuance of General Financial Rules 116-117, decision of the government circulated by the S&GAD dated 27th July, 1994 and insertion of Rule 11 of the Balochistan Civil Servants (Appointment, Promotion and Transfer) Rules, 2009, the government, except in the cases of clerical mistake, cannot change the date of birth of a civil servant, because a complete embargo has been imposed on its power. Permitting government servants to change their date of birth after two years of joining government service or at the twilight of their career would amount to permitting a civil servant to continue government service even after attaining the age of superannuation. It would also be pertinent to add here that the mere fact that the civil servants were able to obtain favorable orders from 'PCDC', having no jurisdiction, did not advance their cases.

9. It is worth mentioning that during the course of arguments, we were informed by the Secretaries Finance and S&GAD that more than 2000 cases regarding change/alteration of date of birth have been decided by the PCDC of in service civil servants without recording evidence. It is surprising that the PCDC without any hesitation proceeded according to the whims of those civil servants and submitted itself before the desires of the claimants, although the PCDC had no authority to entertain such a request and make alteration. We have specifically confronted the learned Secretaries to show us from the record the material placed before the PCDC, which prompted the PCDC to come for the rescue of those civil servants which was made basis for conversion of the date of birth, but they failed to show a single document. It is established law that while seeking such like correction, a declaration is sine qua non which can only be issued by a civil Court of competent jurisdiction on the basis of evidence produced during the proceedings regarding the authenticity of the subject matter. In absence of any declaration the PCDC was not empowered to change the date of birth. The whole proceedings carried out by the PCDC in question are nothing, but squarely smack mala fide at the part of PCDC as well as the civil servants. The said conduct of the PCDC while entertaining claims of the in service civil servants regarding change of date of birth is deprecated (2021 SCMR 595).

10. We are in agreement with the learned Secretary Finance that one cannot plead that by all means, the wrong entry made in the service book should be treated sacrosanct or as gospel truth which could not be rectified in any circumstances, despite being found and proved to be incorrect, deceitful and or interpolated. In case of civil servant, a remedy is available to an aggrieved civil servant to approach the Balochistan Service Tribunal through filing a service appeal under section 4 of the Balochistan Service Tribunals Act, 1974. Indeed, the date of birth of a serving public servant in his/her service record or service book is one of the terms and conditions of his/her service and matter pertaining to change and alteration of such date of birth amounts to service matter within the purview of Article 212(1)(a) of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, which places an embargo upon the jurisdiction of other ordinary Courts and authorities such as PCDC to entertain service matters. As a matter of fact, the PCDC, was constituted to facilitate and dispose of the pension cases of retired civil servants which cannot be disposed of by the administrative departments because of loss/tempering of service book, clerical error, alteration in date of birth or objection raised on the pension cases by the Accountant General Balochistan.

11. It is also astonishing and disturbing to observe that PCDC has also changed the date/s of birth of certain employees of this Court's establishment without any jurisdiction and lawful authority. The services of the employees of establishment of this Court are governed under the High Court Establishment (Appointment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2020. Hence, the relevant provisions relating to date of birth of an employee of the High Court establishment require judicial examination. As per Rule 10 of the High Court Establishment (Appointment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2020, date of birth of an employee shall be final if once entered in the record and it can only be challenged within one year of his entry in service. "

10. Date of birth: (1) The date of birth shall be reckoned as given in the NADRA Computerized record to the satisfaction of the Appointing Authority. (2) Date of birth of an employee once entered in the service record shall be final and thereafter no alteration therein shall be permissible, unless the employee applies for alteration within one year from the date of his entry in service".

12. Furthermore, for dealing the matters relating to the terms and conditions of Service of an employee of High Court Establishment, forum of Appellate Authority has been defined under Rule 46 of the High Court Establishment (Appointment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2020, which is as follows: "

46. Appeal: An employee aggrieved by an order relating to the terms and conditions of his service may, within 30 days from the date of such order, prefer an appeal to the Appellate Authority, indicated herein below: Column 1 Column 2 Authority passing the order. Appellate Authority

1. Registrar Senior Puisne Judge.

2. Chief Justice / Senior Puisne Judge. Appellate Tribunal of two Judges to be nominated by the Chief Justice.

13. Furthermore, any information into the SAP system of Accountant General's Office is entered on the basis of any order, supporting document of service record, date form or charge form issued by the administrative department as well as on the basis of record of Accountant General's Office, including that of date of birth, in respect of any employee which is furnished by the administrative department at the time of his/her appointment. Scrutiny of the orders/decisions of the PCDC in respect of change of date of birth of in service employees of High Court Establishment and others show that the incorporation of wrong date/s of birth into the SAP system of Accountant General's Office has also been taken into account which is otherwise an illegality and irregularity warranting interference by this Court. In view of aforesaid discussion, the petition is disposed of in the following terms:- (1) Entertaining the claims of serving civil servants by the PCDC is illegal and without jurisdiction, (2) The entertainment of claims of serving civil servants undermine transparency and good governance, therefore, the provincial government is well advised to issue necessary directions to PCDC in the light of the instant judgment, (3) All the orders/decisions, passed by the PCDC in respect of alteration and change of dates of birth of the employees of the High Court Establishment are declared of no legal effect; hence, are set-aside and their dates of birth are restored to its previous position as per the service record, as the case may be. Registrar is directed to issue necessary notifications/orders in this respect. (4) In future, for any mistake/clerical mistakes/errors in the dates of birth of the High Court employees, matter/s shall be placed before the Appellate Authority, who shall pass appropriate order/s. SA/123/Bal. Order accordingly.