BILAL S. Vs. PASSPORT OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners are children of Sadik and Binitha K and have filed the petition through their mother Binitha. There has been a divorce between the husband and wife and mother Binitha has already obtained a correction by submitting appropriate application to the Passport Authority by substituting the name of her husband with her father. Petitioners have also moved an application that their father's name is Sadik but it has incorrectly been written as Zakir.

(2.) Respondents have contested the matter by filing a statement on the basis of the instructions received from the Regional Passport Officer as per the letter dtd. 16/9/2021 and contended that in the Birth Certificates at the time of the submission of the application for issuance of the passport, the name of the father was written as Zakir. However, the affidavit do not disclose whether the Birth Certificate is of the Registrar of Birth and Death or of some Municipality or local Panchayat. The two Birth Certificates Exts.P1 and P2 reflect that the name of the petitioners were registered with the Alappuzha Municipality on 16/12/2003 and 15/10/2012 respectively. Those Birth Certificates do not reflect the name of the father as Zakir. The respondents have not placed on record any material in support of the 'statement' which cannot be filed in the absence of any provision in the High Court Rules.

(3.) It is strange that the advocates on the basis of the instructions are filing the statement and that too, not in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure and the format prescribed under the High Court Rules, as for every department, affidavit has to be on the basis of the information traced from the official record and not as per the instructions.