A six member bench of the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Kedar Nath Upadhaya, overturned an earlier ruling and decided Thursday that the age mentioned in education certificates should be the basis for retirement of officials from service.

The apex court  in an earlier ruling said the age mentioned in what is called “sheet roll” of government employees kept at the government Kibatbkhana should be the official age of employees. Retirement age of officials is 58 years.

There have been discrepancies in ages mentioned in educational certificates and sheet rolls with exchanges of cheating charges. The court Thursday ordered the reinstatement of Ram Gopal Barun and Bhirab Jha as joint secretaries at the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology in the basis of the fresh court review.