IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE SECOND DAY OF JULY TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE MS JUSTICE G.ROHINI WRIT PETITION NO : 26086 of 2008 Between: Mohd.Naseer S/o.Nohd.Ismail R/o.12-11-648,Warasiguda Seethaphalmandi,Secunderabad ..... PETITIONER AND The Regional Passport officer, Regional Passport office Station Road, Secunderabad .....RESPONDENT Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to to issue writ or order or direction more in the nature of writ of mandamus directing the respondent to correct the Passport No.e-5737185 belonging to the petitioner by incorporating the Date of Birth of the petitioner as 11.1.1974 in the said passport and pass Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.S.CHAKRAPANI Counsel for the Respondent No.: . The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE MS JUSTICE G.ROHINI WRIT PETITION No : 26086 of 2008 O R D E R : The petitioner herein was issued passport bearing No.N-650627 on 01.03.1993. After its expiry, another passport bearing No.E- 5737185 was issued to the petitioner on 28-07-2003 which is valid up to 27.07.2013. The petitioner sates that his date of birth was wrongly recorded in the passport as 11.01.1971 instead of 11.01.1974. Therefore, he submitted an application before the respondent requesting to correct the entry with regard to his date of birth. However, the respondent refused to make the correction and insisted that the petitioner should furnish a declaration from the competent civil Court with regard to his correct date of birth. Aggrieved by the same, the present writ petition is filed. I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as Sri Penjuri Venugopal for the respondent. It is to be noted that though there is no provision under the Passports Act, 1967 providing for correction of entries in the passport, the Government of India issued instructions/clarifications vide Circular dated 18-04-2001, which run as under : (a) 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. (b) 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. (c) Where the initial entry has been made on the basis of a supportive document issued by one competent authority and the applicant 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 above instructions are binding on the respondent and any request for correction of the entries in the passport has to be considered in terms of the Circular dated 18-04-2001. In the circumstances, a declaration from a competent Court of jurisdiction cannot be insisted for considering each and every request of correction of entries in the passport. Such a declaration from a competent Court of jurisdiction is required only where Clause (c) of the Circular dated 18.04.2001 is attracted. Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, the impugned order is set aside and the Writ Petition is disposed of granting liberty to the petitioner to resubmit the application along with all the relevant supporting material in which event the respondent shall consider the same in terms of the Circular dated 18-04-2001 and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of such application. No costs. ______________ G. ROHINI, J Dated: 02-07-2009 KLP