BHAVIN NATVARLAL PATEL Vs. REGIONAL PASSPORT OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution is filed by Bhavin Natvarlal Patel through his sister and Power of Attorney Holder Vaishali Natvarlal Patel for change of birth date from June 23, 1975 to June 23, 1978 in the petitioner's passport.

(2.) Petitioner Bhavin Natvarlal Patel was granted a passport on February 12, 1982 and thereafter another passport was issued on December 10, 1991 with validity period upto December 9, 2001. In the aforesaid passports, the petitioner's birth date was mentioned as June 23, 1975. The petitioner submitted that the birth date as mentioned in these passports was on the strength of School Leaving Certificate, wherein the petitioner's birth date was mentioned as June 23, 1975, but the correct birth date is June 23, 1978 as mentioned in the birth certificate issued by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. The petitioner had, therefore, requested the passport authority to grant fresh passport with correct birth date as June 23, 1978, as per the birth certificate issued by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, but the passport authority required a Court order and hence, the present petition is filed.

(3.) This Court issued notice to the Regional Passport Officer and subsequently also to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Birth and Death Registration Department and to the school which had issued the School Leaving Certificate. This Court compared the xerox copies of the School Leaving Certificate - one produced by the petitioner before the learned Metropolitan Magistrate, Court No. 6, who passed order dated April 15, 1997 for making entry in the birth register as June 23, 1978 on the basis of a photostat copy of School Leaving Certificate showing the petitioner's birth date as June 23, 1978 and the other copy which is produced in this petition at Annexure "C" showing the birth date as June 23, 1975. Both the copies are photostat, but there are material discrepancies, though each copy purports to be a photostat copy of the same School Leaving Certificate No. 120 of 1989-90 issued on January 6, 1990.