CHANDIGARH, July 6: Punjab police chief (DGP) PC Dogra is seeking change in his date of birth as recorded in the official records, which could not only prolong his service by one-and-a-half years, but could also directly influence the service conditions of nearly one dozen police officers of the Punjab cadre.

As per records, Dogra's date of birth is March 5, 1940. He is seeking to have it modified to September 5, 1941.

According to Dogra, his adoptive parents ``were not aware of his exact date of birth and therefore the date of birth recorded in the school records at Batala was not correct''.

He was brought up by his uncle and aunt as his parents had expired when he was two-and-a-half years old. Dogra's plea is that his adoptive father gave an arbitrary date of birth at the time of his admission to primary school.

According to Dogra, his village in Ranbir Singh Pura in Jammu and Kashmir was gutted and all the records were lost during the Partition riots. After seeking an alteration in the date of birth from the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Jammu, he approached the Government for rectification in the records of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The representation was turned down by the Ministry in October last year. Dogra is now knocking the doors of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).Though the entire chain of IPS officers of the State will be affected by such a move, those who would be affected directly are officers belonging to the 1962 to 1966 batches (Dogra is from the 1964 batch).

In 1994, Dogra filed a petition in the court of special municipal mobile magistrate, Jammu, seeking a change in the date.

Following this, the special municipal mobile magistrate, Jammu, stated in 1994 that ``in my opinion the date of birth of applicant is 5th September, 1941 corresponding to 21st Bhadon 1998 BK''.

In light of the order, a representation was made to the Punjab University seeking a fresh matriculation certificate.

The University issued him a fresh certificate with the altered date of birth in December 1994. Dogra then made a representation in December 1994 to the Government, seeking alteration of the date in the official records.He filed a petition in the J&K High Court (HC). The HC directed that the Government ``consider the petitioner's request for correction of his date of birth''.

In his representation to the Home Ministry, Dogra stated that he would like to serve till his actual date of superannuation and any accidental or bona fide mistake should not be allowed to stand in the way of his legitimate expectation.

The representation was rejected by the Government last year.The rejection was made on the basis of the All India Service Rules, which states: ``The date of birth as accepted by the Central Government shall not be subject to any alteration except where it is established that a bona fide clerical mistake has been committed in accepting the date of birth''.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.