The court established that birth certificates must take precedence in correcting passport date of birth entries, regardless of prior inaccuracies or delays in the application process.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)--This hearing has been done through hybrid mode (physical and virtual hearing).

2. The Petitioner has approached this Court seeking to change the date of birth in his passport, which was rejected by the Regional Passport Office, Delhi (hereinafter, `RPO').

3. The case of the Petitioner is that passport bearing No.H6638919 was issued to him on 17th September, 2009, which was valid till 16th September, 2019. While applying for the passport, he had submitted his 10th Standard certificate, which was issued by the CBSE, wherein his date of birth is 15th April, 1971. Recently, while applying for a US Visa, he realized that his date of birth has wrongly been recorded in the passport. His birth certificate, issued by the North MCD, reflects his date of birth as 15th August, 1970. The RPO has, however, refused to accept his request for change of date of birth on the ground that the Petitioner has utilized his passport with his date of birth as 15th April, 1971. The reasoning given by the Passport Office is as under:

"2. Prima facie, 1st passport i.e. passport bearing number A4744422 dated 06/03/1998 valid up to 05/03/2008 was issued to the applicant with date of birth 15/04/1971 on the basis of documents submitted by him (applicant major) at the time of issuance of the said passport. It is to mention here that the applicant furnished copy of School Certificate issued by C.B.S:E in support of his date of birth as mentioned in the said passport.

3. Therein, applicant completed his entire education on DOB as 15/04/1971 and also utilized passport twice as same DOB as in educational records. Also, relevant documents/records were consistently shown to the Passport Authority, School Board and even police authorities.

4. Aforesaid applicant never brought Birth Certificate to notice that underscores that Birth Certificate was not contemporaneous, but is freshly issued document, prima facie based on Aadhar & PAN Card that are declaratory information and no enquiry goes in details of such documents."

4. Ld. counsel for the Respondent submits that the RPO also relies upon the order of this Court dated 9th October, 2018 in W.P.(C) 10775/2018 titled Taranjeet Singh Vohra v. UOI & Anr. to justify not changing the date of birth.

5. On the other hand, ld. counsel for the Petitioner relies upon the judgment of this Court in Sunita Sawhney v. Union of India, [WP(C) 10839/2015, decided on 3rd December, 2015], wherein this Court has clearly held as under:

"16. To me it appears:

(I) That the respondents, at the time of issuance of Passport and for recording date of birth therein, should insist upon the applicant producing the Birth Certificate and only if the applicant states that his/her birth was not registered under the law aforesaid should other proof of date of birth be accepted. Ordinarily, the applicant should be asked to resort to delayed registration procedure under Section 13 (supra).

(II) That in the event of the applicant, at the time of issuance of Passport states that his/her birth was not registered and subsequently, while seeking correction of date of birth, producing (a) a Birth Certificate showing registration at time of birth or soon thereafter, the respondents, if satisfied of reasons given for being earlier ignorant of registration; or (b) a Birth Certificate obtained under the delayed registration procedure, the respondents should correct the date of birth on the Passport to bring it in consonance with the date of birth on the Birth Certificate.

(III) No application for change of date of birth on Passport, inconsistent with date of birth on Birth Certificate can be entertained. The appli