JUDGMENT :

CHANDRA DHARI SINGH, J.

1. The aforesaid extract is taken from the biographical drama - Kaagaz (2021), which depicts the pangs and plight of people for papers at the pedestals of bureaucracy - the treatment that is meted out to poor people and how those without power and influence are made running from pillar to post, relegated to a life of humiliation in the quest of official documents. It is the story of a piece of paper that holds more value and credence in today’s world than a person in flesh and blood testifying his existence, and him being declared dead due to lack of valid documents. Though the movie was placed in the decades of 1970, how much the situation has improved 50 years hence, remains to be introspected.

2. The instant petition revolves around the birth certificate of a woman who by the stroke of a pen got her birth year wrongly recorded as 1983 instead of 1981. In 2019, upon digitization and publication of birth records, she gained access to her birth certificate and thus began her saga of getting her year of birth corrected in all the official documents - from Aadhaar, Voter ID, PAN and passport - in which she succeeded. However, her quest hit a roadblock