MUSTHAFA NAMBIAMKULAM ABDULKADER Vs. MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has approached this Court seeking for correction of date and place of birth in the passport bearing No. E9110130. The case of the petitioner is that his actual place of birth is 'Pullut, Kerala', but the same is wrongly entered as 'Bangalore' in Ext. P1 passport Similarly, his actual date of birth is 11.3.1962, but the same was wrongly entered as 11.12.1956. On coming to know about the mistake, the petitioner had filed Ext. P5 application seeking to effect necessary corrections. In support of the case projected by the petitioner, Ext. P2, 1st page of the SSLC Book is produced. Since Ext. P5 application was not acted upon by the second respondent, insisting to produce the order of competent civil Court to correct the place of birth, the petitioner is now before this Court for getting appropriate relief. The learned counsel for the petitioner relies upon the judgment of this Court in Swapna Siju v. Union of India, 2012 4 KerLT 419, wherein it was held that to prove the date of birth, SSLC book of an applicant born before 26.01.1989 can be relied on. The learned Counsel for the petitioner also seeks to rely on the Circular No. VI/401/2/5/2001 dated 29.10.2007 issued by the Ministry of External Affairs. The relevant clause is extracted below:

(2.) Going by the above clause, it is very much obvious that the SSLC Book is sufficient to prove the Date/Place of Birth. However, in paragraph '7' of the statement filed on behalf of the respondents it is stated as follows: