IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 19319 of 2008 Between: Ahmed Hussain, S/o. Md. Basheer Ahmed, R/o. 12-11-629/95, L. Narayan Nagar, Warisguda, Secunderabad, A.P. ..... PETITIONER AND The Regional Passport Officer, Passport Office, 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 issue the writ or order more particularly writ of mandamus declaring the action of the respondent not considering the representation of the petitioner for correction of date of birth in the passport and not making the change of date of birth in passport as arbitrary, illegal, null, and void and apart from the letter an spirit of the constitution of India and consequently direct the respondent to renewal the passport by correcting the date of birth as 21-01- 1979 instead of date of birth 25-12-1975 in the passport bearing No. A2194338 of the petitioner which expired on dt. 17-12-2006 and pass Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.MOHD.ABDUL SAMAD Counsel for the Respondent No.: . The Court made the following : ORDER This writ petition has been ﬁled by Ahmed Hussain assailing the inaction of the respondent in not entertaining his application for correction of date of birth in the passport bearing No.A 2194338. The petitioner holds a passport bearing No.A 2194338 issued on 18.12.1996. His date of birth has been mentioned in the passport as 25.12.1975. According to him, his correct date of birth is 21.1.1979. As proof of his date of birth, he placed on record a copy of the secondary school certiﬁcate issued by the Secretary, Board of Secondary Education, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. He submitted an application to the respondent for correction of his date of birth in the passport. According to the petitioner, his application for correction of date of birth has not been entertained by the respondent. Hence, this writ petition. Notice before admission ordered on 6.9.2008. Despite service of notice vide letter dated 6.10.2008 issued by the Senior Post Master, Secunderabad HPO, the respondent did not choose to enter appearance either in person or through his counsel. Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and perused the material placed on record. The Government of India, Ministry of External Aﬀairs issued circular dated 18.04.2001, which reads 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. Having considered the above circular, this Court in Ali Imran v. Regional Passport Oﬃcer, Secunderabad [1] held that as per the circular dated 18.4.2001, it is permissible to accept the applications for rectiﬁcation/correction of the entries in the passport. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the correction of date of birth of the petitioner in the passport is only a technical correction, and therefore, it falls under clause (a) of the circular. In support of his submission, the learned counsel relied upon the decision in Asra Begum v. Regional Passport Officer, Secunderabad[2]. Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case and following the decision of this Court in Ali Imran’s case (1 supra), the writ petition is disposed of granting liberty to the petitioner to make a fresh application with relevant material to substantiate his plea, within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. If any such application is made, the respondent is directed to receive and consider the same in accordance with circular dated 18.4.2001 and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law within a period of four weeks thereafter. No costs. __________ 13-10-2008 rkk [1] 2003(3) ALD 625 [2] 2004(6) ALD 360