THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO W.P.No.18414 OF 2010 ORDER: This writ petition has been instituted seeking directions to the Regional Passport Officer, Hyderabad, to reissue an Indian Passport in favour of the writ petitioner by correcting her name as ‘AISWARYA’, instead of ‘ISWARYA’ and further correcting her date of birth as ‘10-12-1986’ instead of the date recorded in her Passport, namely, ‘10-12-1987’. The writ petitioner submits that she has been granted Indian Passport bearing No.A-O830746 on 19-04-1996. In the said Passport, her name was recorded as ‘ISWARYA’ instead of ‘AISWARYA’. There is also an error committed with regard to her date of birth - instead of recording it as ‘10-12-1986’, it was recorded as ‘10-12-1987’. The writ petitioner has appeared for her Secondary School Certificate Examination (S.S.C.) during March 2001 and in the pass certificate her date of birth is recorded as ‘10-12-1986’ and her name was also recorded as ‘TATAPUDI AISWARYA’. Rest of her collegiate education records also contain the same information. Therefore, she sought for correction of the aforementioned two entries in her Passport bearing No. A-O830746. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for the Central Government and with their consent the writ petition is heard and disposed of at the stage of admission. The Ministry of External Affairs through their Circular dated 18-04-2001 has furnished detailed instructions as to how to deal with the claims relating to correction of the entries in the Indian Passports. The Ministry has given the following instructions: “i) Where an applicant is seeking rectification/Correction of a mistake in the entry of date of birth/place of birth in the passport, PIA (Passport Issuing Authority) may after verifying/satisfying himself, affect the correction treating the same as a technical correction. There is no need for a declaratory order in such cases. ii) Where a competent authority issuing a birth certificate or an educational board registering a date of birth along with place of birth as valid were to issue any correction or amendment, PIA may effect the necessary amendment in the passport without insisting on a Court Order. As per the provisions of Section 21 of the General Clauses Act,1997, a competent authority issuing a certificate could also make necessary amendments to the same. iii) Where the initial entry has been made on the basis of a supportive document issued by one competent authority and the application subsequently requests for a change on the basis of a certificate issued by another competent authority i.e. municipal authorities resulting in conflicting sources of valid proof, the PIA should direct the applicant to obtain a civil order from a competent Court of jurisdiction, certifying the valid date of birth/place of birth.” The learned Standing Counsel for the Central Government has also drawn my attention to another Circular dated 29-10-2007 issued, by the Ministry of Home Affairs when it came to its notice that the instructions in Circular dated 18-04-2001, are, by and large, ignored by most Passport Issuing Authorities (PIAs). Therefore, all the PIAs are advised to examine the claims for correction of the entries in the Passport on the following lines before asking for production of a Court Order. (a) Where an applicant claims clerical/technical mistake in the entry relating to birth/place of birth in the passport and asks for rectification/correction: In all such cases the documents produced earlier as proof of date of birth/place of birth at the time of issue of passport may be perused (if not already destroyed) by PIA. In case, it is a clerical mistake either by the applicant or the PIA, date/place of birth correction may be allowed by issue of fresh passport booklet; in the former case, by charging fee for fresh passport and in the latter, ‘gratis’. There is no need for declaratory court order in such cases. (b) Where a competent authority which issued a birth certificate or an educational certificate, issues any correction or amendment in date/place of birth, PIA may effect the necessary amendment in the passport without insisting on a Court Order provided the same document was produced earlier with the passport application. Fresh fees will be charged. (c) Where files have already been destroyed, PIAs could use their discretion in correction of date of birth without a Court Order, where such correction is only in months (not more than two years) and applicants provide satisfactory explanation that the same document (s) was provided at the time of initial passport application. Fresh fees will be charged. (d) Where the initial entry has been made on the basis of a supportive document issued by one competent authority i.e. School/educational authority and the applicant subsequently requests for a change on the basis of a certificate issued by another competent authority i.e. Municipal authorities etc. resulting in conflicting documents for valid proof, the PIA should direct the applicant to procure an order from a First Class Judicial Magistrate, to effect the change as per Passport Manual 2001 (In some States, this function is discharged by Civil Magistrates). (e) For those born on or after 26.01.1989, birth certificate is the only approved document, as already prescribed.” I had an occasion to deal with the instructions issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on 18-04-2001 while dealing with W.P.No.5308 of 2007 decided by me on 10-05-2007. The latest instructions issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on 29-10-2007, while reiterating the earlier instructions, have allowed necessary discretion in the hands of the PIAs for making corrections with regard to the entries contained in the Passports. Obviously, these instructions have been passed on to ensure that the holders of the Passports issued by the PIAs of India contain entries therein, which are in para-materia the same with regard to the rest of the relevant documents of a person for the purpose of Emigration, Long-Term Resident Visas, etcetera. These latest instructions have been issued by the Ministry, obviously, to avoid the likely inconvenience that might be faced by such individuals, whose entries in the Passport are at variance with their other documents, such as, educational record. In the instant case, the writ petitioner’s date of birth was recorded as ‘10-12-1986’ in her scholastic and collegiate record. In the said record, her name was also recorded as ‘AISWARYA’, whereas the entries relating to these two aspects in her Passport bearing No. A- O830746, read as ’10-12-1987’ and ‘ISWARYA’. I am satisfied that it is purely a technical error committed by the petitioner at the time of obtaining the Indian Passport on 19-04-1996. At that stage, she was even less than nine years of age and, obviously, she could not produce her scholastic record of S.S.C. Examination, which examination she passed in March 2001. Therefore, the present writ petition is allowed directing the respondent Regional Passport Officer, Hyderabad, to carry out necessary corrections in the entries relating to her name and date of birth duly recording the name of the writ petitioner as ‘TATAPUDI AISWARYA’ and in the column relating to her date of birth as ‘10-12-1986’, instead of the existing entries, within thirty days from today, after collecting the necessary fee for reissuing a fresh Indian Passport, without insisting for any declaration from a Court of Judicial First Class. No costs. --------------------------------- Nooty Ramamohana Rao, J Note: Issue copy in three days. (bo) mrk 7th September 2010