A Mistake Is Entitled To Correction

The present controversy about the two dates of births of Army Chief, General VK Singh reminds me of my experience about mistake in documentation and rectification of the same :-

Few years back I approached Army Headquarters’ Adjutant General's Branch to obtain dependent certificates for my sons. As I approached the concerned officer in the AG’s Branch, he noted down my service details and asked me to wait in the visitors' room for a while. Though, I was expecting that after submitting my request I would be asked to come the next day or after few days, as it is done in other Government Departments, but to my pleasant surprise, in just about fifteen minutes' time, the Subedar Clerk of the concerned section came to the visitors' room and handed me the dependent certificate (swift action might have been due to the genius of computerization). As I glanced through the document I was surprised to find a different name of one of my sons, although other details on the document were correct.  On asking for the dependent certificate for the second son, the Subedar Clerk replied that my record of service showed only one child. 

I thought for a while and could immediately put two and two together.

Both my sons were born at Military Hospital, Jalandhar Cantt, where I was posted during my Army tenure in early eighties. When my first child was expected, we, in the family often  discussed  that if it was a boy we would name him Sapandeep and if it was a girl, then the name would be Deepali, (that reflected my fancy for word 'Deep' which means lamp or the source of light).  While my wife was in total agreement with me on this matter, my mother differed and categorically told us that firstly, she was damn sure that it would be a boy and secondly that he would be named Sartaj Singh.

 

As the D day approached, we were blessed with a son, the grandmother’s wish was honored and the new born was christened Sartaj Singh.

 

In the Army, the personal effects of an officer, like marriage and birth of children are published by the officer’s unit in which he or she is serving, which are called Part Two Orders which are further forwarded to the Army Headquarters for putting them in the record of service of the officers in addition to the official effects like date of birth, date of commission, dates of transfers/postings, appointments held, training courses undergone, promotion examinations passed, medical category held, battles fought, and honors and awards won.

 It had so happened that after the birth of my elder son, the Unit Head Clerk, while publishing the Part Two Orders, had not consulted me about the name of the child and had instead depended on the informal information emanating out of the discussion which had been going on for some time amongst Battalion officers about the name of my son and had published his name as Sapandeep Singh which in turn was recorded in the Army Headquartes too. Another mistake which was committed  was that the Part Two Orders were not at all published with regard to the birth of my second son due to an oversight, since, at the time of his birth, i was away undergoing three months' Junior Command Course at College of Combat Mhow (Madhya Pradesh), and in the bargain, my record of service in the Army Headquarters showed only one child and that too with a wrong name.

I narrated the complete story to the Officer concerned of the section who asked  me to submit  two affidavits, one for the change of the name of  my elder son, giving due justification and second, for the birth of my younger  son, along with relevant documents like, birth certificate and or class tenth certificate, where the correct date of birth is recorded along with the names of both the parents. I submitted the said affidavits, with the desired documents and  I got my Modified Record of Service, duly showing all the correct details about my service and my family etc.

Well, a mistake can always be committed in documentation due to an oversight but a mistake is also entitled to a correction.