ATUL FRADY Vs. UNION OF INDIA AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner has approached this Court seeking writ in the nature of mandamus for directing the respondents to change/correct his date of birth in passport bearing No. A-2783428 (Annexure P-3) as per his birth certificate (Annexure P-8) and matriculation certificate (Annexure P-7).

(2.) In brief, the petitioner applied for a passport at Passport Sewa Kendra, Ludhiana on 03.08.2017 (Annexure P-1). He received an intimation on 20.09.2017 (Annexure P-2) that a passport already stood issued in his name on 13.03.1997. The petitioner inquired from his parents and got a copy of his passport (Anexure P-3) wherein his date of birth had been wrongly recorded as 12.03.1991. The said passport had already expired on 12.03.2007. After getting this information, petitioner again contacted the passport authorities on 29.09.2017 for renewal/re- issuance of a passport with a correction in his date of birth to 21.03.1991 instead of 12.03.1991. For this purpose, he submitted his birth certificate, matriculation certificate and other documents. He submitted representation dated 12.12.2017 (Annexure P-4) and pointed out that when the previous passport had been issued he was a minor child of 6 years of age. Vide letter dated 20.12.2017, Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh (respondent No.2) informed him that his passport file had been closed due to absence of response from his side.

(3.) Upon notice being issued, respondent No.2 has filed an affidavit submitting that the previous passport had been issued on the basis of the information which had been supplied in the earlier application and since false information had been given, the petitioner was liable to proceeded against under Section 12 as well as Section 10(3)(b) of the Passport Act, 1967. It had further been submitted that change in date of birth after lapse of 15 years was not permissible. The respondent further placed reliance upon a Division Bench judgment of this Court in LPA No.1613 of 2014 titled as Ambika Kaul Versus Central Board of Secondary Education and others decided on 21.05.2015 as well as a judgment of the High Court of Kerala in W.P.(C) No.9073 of 2015 titled as Jayakumar versus The Regional Passport Officer, decided on 23.06.2015.