YOGESH INDUKUMAR PATEL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RULE, returnable forthwith. Dr. D. Y. Chandrachud, Additional Solicitor General, waives service for respondent No. 1. Mr. A. L. Patki, Additional Government Pleader, waives service for respondent No. 2. By consent, Rule called out and heard.

(2.) BY this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner, the father of a minor girl, Payal Yogesh Patel, seeks a direction to the Union of India in the Ministry of External Affairs through the Regional Passport Officer to rectify what is alleged to be a mistake in the date of birth committed by the Regional Passport Office while issuing a passport to his daughter Payal.

(3.) IN the application submitted to the Regional Passport Officer at Mumbai in April, 1998, the date of birth of Payal was indicated as "28-05-1983". The applicant submitted a xerox copy of a previous passport No. E-288403 as proof of date of birth. In the previous passport also the date of birth of the petitioners daughter Payal had been shown as 28-05-1983. On the strength of these particulars supplied by the applicant, a passport bearing No. A-5477622 was issued to the daughter of the petitioner in which the date of birth was shown as "28-05-1983". The petitioner complains by this petition that this is erroneous as the correct date of birth of Payal is 28-05-1982. In support, he produced before us an extract of the school leaving certificate Exhibit "c" and a certificate from the birth register maintained by the Bombay Municipal Corporation Exhibit "d". We notice that the school leaving certificate is issued by Smt. Jayaben B. Khot High School, Borivli (East), Bombay 400 066 on 29th June, 1998 and the extract from the birth register is issued on 15th June, 1988. The petitioner applied to the Regional Passport Officer on the strength of these documents and sought rectification of the particulars of date of birth of his daughter Payal in the passport issued to her. This request was refused by the Regional Passport Office by the order dated 4th June, 1999 (Exhibit "e") on the ground that there was no provision in the Indian Passports Act or the Rules framed thereunder for rectification of particulars furnished and that the applicant shall produce a declaratory judicial order in support. Being aggrieved thereby, the petitioner is before this Court.