Correction of date of birth in passport records is permissible even beyond the five-year limitation period if the claim is genuine and supported by authenticated documents.

ORDER:

This Writ Petition is filed seeking to declare the action of the Respondents in not considering and not correcting the Date of Birth of the Petitioner from 18.03.1970 to 29.06.1975 in the passport records, and consequently not processing the application for issuance of a passport as illegal and seeks a direction to the respondents to correct the Date of Birth in the passport records and issue the passport accordingly.

Heard Sri Venkata Rangadas Kanuri, learned counsel for the petitioner and Smt.N.V.R.Rajya Lakshmi, learned Standing Counsel for the Central Government appearing for Respondent Nos. 1 to 3. Perused the record.

It is the case of the Petitioner that he was issued Passport bearing No.H9208350, wherein, due to an inadvertent clerical error at the time of issuance of the passport, his date of birth was wrongly recorded as 18.03.1970 instead of 29.06.1975. Upon expiry of the said passport, the Petitioner applied for renewal/reissuance of the passport and requested correction of the date of birth by submitting supporting documents, including Aadhaar Card, PAN Card, and Voter Identity Card, all reflecting his correct date of birth as 29.06.1975. However, the Respondents failed to consider the Petitioner’s request. Hence, the present Writ Petition.

Learned Standing Counsel for the respondents referred to the Office Memorandum dated 22.09.2016 issued by the Joint Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer, New Delhi. As per the said Office Memorandum, any request for correction/change of entries in the passport after a period of five years from the date of issuance cannot ordinarily be entertained.

However, the said Office Memorandum also provides that the Passport Issuing Authority shall consider the explanation of each applicant seeking change of date of birth to ascertain the genuineness of the claim, even if more than five years have elapsed since the issuance of the passport. It further states that such requests shall not be entertained in a routine manner unless supported by a genuine explanation for the delay and authenticated documents. Upon such application being made, the authority is required to consider the same in accordance with the relevant circulars dated 26.11.2015 and 13.01.2016. Thus, correction of date of birth can be considered even beyond the period of five years in genuine cases.

This Court has perused the documents produced by the petitioner, namely the Aadhaar Card, PAN Card, Secondary School Certificate, Age Certificate and Voter Identity Card which reflect the petitioner’s date of birth as 29.06.1975.

In view of the aforesaid guidelines and in view of the circulars dated 26.11.2015 and 13.01.2016 and considering that correction of date of birth is permissible in genuine cases even beyond five years, this Court deems it appropriate to dispose of the writ petition with a direction to the petitioner to submit a fresh application, enclosing all relevant documents in support of his date of birth and name, within a period of two (02) weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. Upon receipt of such application, the respondents shall consider the same and take appropriate action in accordance with law.

With the above directions, the Writ Petition is disposed of. No costs.

Miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending in this Writ Petition, shall stand closed.