NAZAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IT is averred that the petitioner is a citizen of India and that he was holding Ext.P1 Indian passport No.U 919472, which was renewed on 12.11.2013 by the 2nd respondent Regional Passport Officer, Thiruvananthapuram and that the renewed Ext.P2 passport No. L 5208692 was issued to him. It is his case that he had submitted the application for passport through an agent as the petitioner is uneducated and unaware of the formalities and that before renewal, the petitioner found that his date of birth entered in the passport is wrongly entered as 23.05.1953 and that the correct date of birth of the petitioner is 25.04.1967. That he had instructed his agent to show the correct date of birth as 25.04.1967 in the application for renewed passport, that was not done by his agent, which resulted in the wrong entry of the date of birth in his passport, it is averred. It is case of the petitioner that his correct date of birth is 25.04.1967 and the same has been duly and properly entered in Ext.P3 school certificate issued by the competent authority and the petitioner believed that he had submitted the copy of Ext.P2 school certificate also at the time of filing of application for passport earlier in the year 1983 and it is only recently he understood that his original date of birth has been mistakenly entered in his passport.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner, he has submitted an application along with the original of the above said passport and Ext.P3 school certificate before the 2nd respondent Regional Passport Officer on 25.02.2014 for correction of his date of birth as 25.04.1967 in Ext.P2 passport on the basis of Ext.P3 school certificate. He had also send Ext.P4 online application dated 27.3.2014 for the same purpose, in which also he had showed his date of birth correctly as 25.04.1967 on the basis of Ext.P3 school certificate, it is stated. It is the case of the petitioner that the 2nd respondent, Regional Passport Officer, directed the petitioner to produce an order from the competent court declaring his date of birth as 25.4.1967, along with the application, and that without producing such a court order, they will not issue a new corrected passport on the basis of Ext.P3 school certificate and that without correcting his date of birth in Ext.P2 passport, the petitioner is unable to return to his work place in gulf country etc., it is averred.

(3.) THE petitioner relies on certain decisions of this Court in the matter of correction of date of birth in the passport.