ORDER

The petitioner has filed this Writ Petition seeking for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus, directing the respondent to accept the request of the petitioner to effect correction in the date of birth in his passport No.Z5941503 as per his Birth, SSLC, Transfer Certificates, Gazette Notification, Aadhar Card, PAN Card, Driving License based on the petitioner's representation, dated

13.04.2022 within the period stipulated by this Court.

2.Heard Mr.A.Haja Mohideen, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr.V.Malaiyendran, learned counsel for the respondents.

3.The grievance of the petitioner is that in the passport issued to the petitioner, the date of the birth of the petitioner is wrongly mentioned. Hence, the petitioner approached the respondent seeking correction in the date of birth. Since no action has been taken on the same, the petitioner is before this Court.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner has completed SSLC. He obtained passport in Passport No.Z5941503, in which the date of birth of the petitioner is mentioned as 15.04.1969. The spelling of his name is also wrongly mentioned. He submitted that at the time seeking passport, the father of the petitioner had given their ration card as proof and hence, his date of birth and spelling of his name was mentioned in the passport as mentioned in the ration card. But in the SSLC & Transfer certificates, Adhar, Pan and other documents, his date of birth and spelling of his name is mentioned as 15.12.1974 and Serajudeen, respectively.

5.The petitioner to correct his name has issued a gazette notification and corrected the spelling of his name. To correct the date of birth in his passport, the petitioner approached the respondent on 13.04.2022. The respondent sent a reply on 13.04.2022 stating that the procedure for change of date of birth is not a routine matter and there are no specified documents and if necessary documents are produced, the petitioner's case will be considered based on the merits of the case. Hence, the petitioner got an appointment through online and appeared before the respondent and submitted all his documents. But the respondent without considering the same, made the petitioner to run pillar to post. Hence, the petitioner has filed the present writ petition.

6.The learned counsel for the respondent made objections to the prayer of the petitioner by filing his counter. The learned counsel for respondent submitted that the petitioner has obtained passport initially in Passport No.TRYW05917692 by producing relevant documents. By efflux of time, the said documents were destroyed by the passport office and hence, the same could not be produced before this Court. Thereafter, for the second time, the petitioner renewed passport in the year 1993, thirdly in the year 2003. The date of birth of the petitioner is mentioned in the passport only as 15.04.1969, since from the date of issuance of the passport. Now, the petitioner seeks correction in his date of birth for the reasons best known to him.

7.The learned counsel for the respondent further submitted that the petitioner has approached this Court after 29 years from the date of issuance of passport seeking correction in his date of birth. He made reliance to Para No.8 of the counter affidavit, which reads as under:

“It is submitted that based on the above judgment of Hon'ble High Court of Kerala, the ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi has issued a standing instruction to the Passport Issuing Authority (PIA) that under no circumstances the Passport Issuing Authority will relegate the applicant to obtain the declaratory court order to carry out changes with regard to the date of birth in the passport. Similarly, vide MEA O.M.No.VI/401/2/5/2001, dated 26.11.2015, guidelines with regard to change/correction of date/place of birth entries in the passport of an applicant already held by him/her can approach for such change correction within the stipulated span of 5 years from the da