IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE EIGHTEENTH DAY OF JUNE TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 3463 of 2008 Between: Mohammed Abdul Sami S/o.Mohammed Ghouse, R/o.H.No.12-2-285/A/1,Muradnagar Mehdipatnam,Hyd ..... PETITIONER AND Regional Passport Officer Sec-Bad .....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 a writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction declaring the inaction of the respondent in not correcting the correct dt of birth of the petitioner ie 28-9-1983 in the passport of the petitioner bearing No.E 3297592 basing ie on the secondary school Certificate issued by the Board of Secondary Education, A.P Hyderabad as being arbitrary illegal, unjust contrary to the circular No.8-4-2001 issued by the Ministry of External Affairs Govt of India and also violative of Article 14 of the constitution of India and consequently direct the respondent to forthwith correct the date of birth of the petitioner in the passport bearing No.E 4119502 basing on the Secondary School Certificate issued by the Board of Secondary Education A.P Hyd. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.ALI FAROOQUE Counsel for the Respondent :--. The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition has been filed by Mohammed Abdul Sami assailing the inaction of the Regional Passport Officer, Secunderabad- respondent in correcting the date of birth of the petitioner in his passport bearing No.E 3297592. 2. The petitioner is a permanent resident of Hyderabad. He passed S.S.C. compartmentally in the examinations held by the Board of Secondary Education, A.P., Hyderabad, in the month of March, 2001. His date of birth is mentioned in the SSC certificate as 28.09.1983. He applied for passport through a middleman in the year 2002. After due verification of his antecedents the respondent issued passport to him on 17.09.2002, which is valid for a period of ten years. The petitioner on coming to know that the date of birth in the passport has been wrongly mentioned as 28.09.1980 instead of 28.09.1983, approached the respondent with a representation on 18.01.2008 to correct his date of birth in the passport. The respondent refused to entertain the application. Hence, this writ petition by the petitioner. 2. Notice before admission has been ordered to the respondent. Despite notice being served on the respondent, he did not choose to enter appearance either in person or through a counsel. 3. Heard learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and perused the material available on record. 4. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the issue involved in this writ petition is squarely covered by the judgment of this Court in W.P.No.21035 of 2007 (Syed Khundmeer v. Regional Passport Officer, Secunderabad). Therefore, necessary direction is required to be given to the respondent to entertain the application of the petitioner and pass appropriate orders keeping in view the Circular dated 18.04.2001 issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. 5. This Court in Durgempudi Venkata Raghava v. Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, Passport Office, Hyderabad [1] observed at paras 9 to 14 as hereunder : “Placing reliance on the clarification issued on the aforesaid Circular, Writ Petition No.8533 of 2004, was disposed of directing the respondents to consider the representation of the petitioner along with the Secondary School Certificate issued by Secretary, Board of Secondary Education, Andhra Pradesh and pass appropriate orders in the light of the observations made in the said judgment. It is no doubt true that the present Writ Petition was filed in the year 1997 and the Government under Ministry of External Affairs issued the Circular referred to supra on 18-4-2001. As can be seen from the material available on record, the certificates which had been produced before this Court, it is clear that it is only a bona fide mistake which had crept in. Apart from this aspect of the matter, no counter affidavit had been filed denying the specific averment made in the affidavit filed in support of the Writ Petition that along with the application form for passport, the Travel Agent also enclosed copies of S.S.C. certificate, Intermediate certificate and also Degree certificate. Therefore, it is evident that without verifying the date of, the respondent authority just took the date of birth as filled up in the application form and issued the passport. Hence, it is needless to say that it is only a bona fide mistake. The learned Senior Standing Counsel for Central Government, no doubt submitted that in such a situation, if the passport was issued prior to the said circular it would be proper to give an opportunity to the writ petitioner to file fresh application for issuance of passport to the competent authority. In the light of the facts and circumstances, especially in view of Clause (a) of the Circular, dated 18-4-2001 referred to supra and also in view of the fact that all these copies of documents also had been produced at the time of filing of the application form but a bona fide mistake had crept in, the Writ Petition is disposed of with the following directions. The petitioner shall file fresh application enclosing all the copies of certificates, which are being relied upon by him, before the respondent within a period of one month from today and the respondent is directed to take into consideration of the certificates and after verifying the same, pass appropriate orders in this regard within a period of one month thereafter...” 6. In view of the Circular dated 18.04.2001 issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and also in the light of the decision referred to supra, the Writ Petition is disposed of at the admission stage directing the respondent to receive the application of the petitioner along with necessary documents if any enclosed for correction of the date of birth and dispose of the same keeping in view the guidelines issued in the Circular referred to supra, within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. No costs. ______________________ B.SESHASAYANA REDDY, J. Date:18th June, 2008. Note: Issue C.C. within three days. B/O cs ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{BMR} [1] 2005(1) ALT 751