NAZAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has approached this Court seeking for correction of date of birth in the passport bearing No. F7487778. The case of the petitioner is that his actual date of birth is 30.5.1967, but the same is wrongly entered as 3.4.1965 in Ext. P1 passport. On coming to know about the mistake, the petitioner had filed Ext. P3 application dated 14.6.2013 before the 2nd respondent seeking to effect necessary corrections. In support of the case projected by the petitioner, Ext. P2 extract of the Admission Register issued by the school, where the petitioner had last attended for studies, was also produced. Since the same was not acted upon by the second respondent, the petitioner is now before this Court for getting appropriate relief. The learned Assistant Solicitor General of India appearing for the respondents submits that the petitioner had neither produced the SSLC Book, nor the Birth Certificate issued by the concerned authority so as to cause the correction of the date of birth in the passport. With reference to relevant circulars and also the verdict passed by this Court reported in Aboo v. Regional Passport Officer, 2008 1 KerLT 992 the learned Counsel submits that the petitioner has to produce the SSLC Book or else he has to get a declaration from the Civil Court, as observed in the last paragraph of the said verdict.

(2.) The learned counsel for the petitioner, on the other hand, submits that there is absolutely no reason for the respondents to insist for the documents as aforesaid and that in the cases of applicants, who were born prior to 1989, school records are more than sufficient, as held by this Court in Swapna Siju v. Union of India, 2012 4 KerLT 419 .

(3.) The Register of Births and the Birth Certificates issued by the concerned authority need not be the sole basis for the correction of date of birth of the person born before 26.1.1989. It is not necessary to produce an extract from the Register of Births to prove the date of birth, as held by this Court in Swapna Siju v. Union of India .