A.M. Shaffique, J.

1. These appeals are filed against the common judgment dated 16.10.2014 in W.P. (C). Nos. 21181/2014 and 17344/2014. By virtue of the impugned judgment, the learned Single judge while allowing the Writ Petitions directed the Passport Issuing Authority (for short 'PIA') to consider the application for correction of date of birth in the passport of the petitioners after declaring that Clause (c) of circular dated 29.10.2007 restricting the power of the PIA to correct the difference in date of birth beyond two years as void and inoperative. The respondents, being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment, have approached this Court in these appeals. In fact, the learned Single Judge has decided the above cases along with a batch of other Writ Petitions. Since the impugned directions have been issued in the above Writ Petitions alone, only two appeals are filed. The facts involved in W.P.C. No. 21181/2014 are as under:

"Petitioner is the holder of Indian passport bearing No. K 6569671 which was renewed on 14.9.2012. The validity of the passport expires only on 13.09.2022. At the time of issuing the passport in 1992, the date of birth of the petitioner was entered as 10.08.1971. He submits that his actual date of birth is 06.01.1976. He relies upon Ext. P3, true copy of the Secondary School Leaving Certificate and Ext. P4, Aadhaar card. Further, an extract of admission register of Govt. V.H.S.S., Alamcode is produced as Ext. P5. According to the petitioner, the entry of date of birth in the passport was on account of a mistake committed by his parents and that, at the relevant time in 1992, he was only 16 years old. He applied for correcting the mistake which was rejected by Ext. P6 dated 06.08.2014 calling upon him to produce a declaration of Court for changing the entry in the passport. Petitioner submits that all the materials produced here was produced before the passport authority to correct the date of birth and the passport officer was not justified in calling upon him to produce Court order and hence the petitioner has approached this Court seeking a mandamus to declare that his date of birth as 06.01.1976, as shown in Ext. P3 and for a further direction to respondents 2 and 3/appellants 2 and 3 to correct the date of birth on the basis of his application."

2. Statement is filed on behalf of the 5th respondent Assistant Solicitor General of India (ASGI) stating that as per Paragraph 5.2(3) of Chapter 8 in the Passport Manual, in instances where the previous files have already been destroyed, the PIA could exercise his discretion to correct the date of birth without a Court order, if the difference in the date of birth to be corrected is not more than two years and on the applicant providing satisfactory explanation that the same documents were provided at the time of submitting the passport application.

3. In W.P.(C) No. 17322/2014, the facts disclosed are as under:

"Petitioner obtained passport in the year 1992 as passport No. L 875090. He renewed his passport in 2002 from Embassy of India, Muscat, The date of birth shown in the passport was 04.05.1969. According to him, his actual date of birth is 04.05.1974. No documents were produced at the time of submitting application pertaining date of birth. He came to know about the mistake only now. He obtained the S.S.L.C certificate in which date of birth is shown as 04.05.1974. He requested for correction of entry regarding date of birth which was rejected calling upon him to produce a Court order. Petitioner submits that the said action is illegal. He submits that the 1st respondent has issued circular dated 29.10.2007 by which Clause (c) runs counter to Clause (a). The restriction to the power given to Passport Officers fixing the outer limit of two years for correction of the entry in the passport is in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and on these set of facts, petitioner seeks the following reliefs:

"1. Issue a writ of mandamus or any ot