The date of birth in a passport must match the birth certificate, allowing rectification if genuineness is not disputed.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)

1. This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.

2. The Petitioner-Mr. Swaraj Singh Kohli who is the son of Mr. BS Kohli and Mrs. DK Kohli has filed the present petition seeking rectification of his date of birth in the passport. His case is that inadvertently when his uncle applied for his passport, the date of birth was wrongly recorded as 5th October, 1999. The actual date of birth of the Petitioner is 14th September, 1999.

3. In support of his petition, the Petitioner relies upon his Election Photo Identity Card, Aadhar Card, Birth Certificate, School ID Card, CBSE Grade Sheet-cum-Certificate, Bar Council Provisional Identity Card, etc. The Petitioner submits that he has applied for change of his date of birth, however, despite repeated reminders, the Petitioner has not received the rectified passport. Hence, it is prayed that the passport authorities be directed to rectify the date of birth in the passport and issue the passport immediately.

4. Ld. counsel for the Respondent accepts notice.

5. Heard. A perusal of the documents shows that in all the documents except the passport, the Petitioner's date of birth is reflected as 14th September, 1999. The rectification of date of birth in a passport, would be governed by the Passport Act, 1967 and the Rules framed thereunder. It is the settled legal position that the date of birth in the passport ought to be matching with the birth certificate of the passport holder. This was most recently held by this Court in Deep Chandra Harbola v. UOI & Anr., W.P.(C) 6171/2020, decided on 2nd February, 2021, wherein this Court has followed the judgment in Sunita Sawhney v. Union of India, WP(C) 10839/2015, decided on 3rd December, 2015. The relevant portion of the said judgment is set out herein below:

"6. Heard ld. counsels for the parties. The Passport Authority, appears to have relied upon the office memorandum dated 26th November, 2015, issued by the CPV division, Ministry of External Affairs, prescribing guidelines with regard to change/ correction of dates of birth in passports already held by applicants...The relevant extract of the said Memorandum reads:

"(ii) If an applicant applies for the change of date of birth in the passport within a reasonable period of time i.e. within a span of five (5) years from the date of issue of passport having the alleged wrong date of birth, with the birth certificate issued by the Registrar of Births & Deaths stating that the date of birth recorded in the passport was based on the entries mentioned documents other than the Birth Certificate, the request of such an applicant irrespective of the difference in the dates of birth, may be considered by the Passport Issuing Authority. However, before the issuance of passport with changed date of birth, the Passport Authority shall also levy appropriate penalty on the applicant for obtaining passport on previous occasion by providing wrong information regarding his/her date of birth."...

7. Ld. counsel for the Petitioner has relied upon the judgment of a ld. Single judge of this court in Sunita Sawhney (supra) wherein it was held as under: ...

8. In the abovementioned decision, the Court has categorically held that irrespective of the amount of delay which may have been there in applying for a change of date of birth, the same cannot be refused. As long as the genuineness of the birth certificate is not in dispute, the Applicant ought to be allowed to change the date of birth in accordance with the birth certificate. The same principle is also applicable to the change in place of birth.

9. Reliance is also placed upon the judgment in Nisha Kamboj (supra) wherein a ld. Single Judge of this Court has held:

"4. However, keeping in view the aforesaid judgments cited by le