THE HON’BLE MS. JUSTICE G. ROHINI WRIT PETITION No.21285 of 2011 ORDER: The petitioner was issued passport bearing No.Z 1866696 initially on 24.11.2004, which was expired and renewed on 05.06.2010 and valid upto 04.06.2020. The petitioner states that his correct date of birth is 18.08.1962, however, it was wrongly entered in the passport as 18.08.1960. Having noticed the same, the petitioner submitted an application to the first respondent requesting to correct his date of birth as 18.08.1962 instead of 18.08.1960. Alleging that the first respondent failed to accept the application, the present writ petition is filed seeking a declaration that the action of the first respondent in not issuing a fresh passport with correct date of birth is arbitrary and illegal. I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as Smt.K.Rajitha, the learned standing counsel appearing for the respondents. As could be seen, the specific case of the petitioner is that his date of birth has been recorded in all his educational certificates as 18.08.1962, however, the same was wrongly entered in the passport as 18.08.1960. The Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs issued a Circular dated 29.10.2007 prescribing the procedure to be followed by the Passport Issuing Authority in the cases relating to change of date of birth/place of birth in the passports. As per the said Circular, a declaratory order from the competent civil Court cannot be insisted as a matter of course in all cases. Therefore, the first respondent is bound to receive the application of the petitioner and consider the same in accordance with the Circular dated 29.10.2007. After such consideration, if the Passport Issuing Authority is satisfied that the material produced is sufficient to rectify/correct the date of birth in terms of Circular dated 29.10.2007, he may rectify/correct the date of birth in the passport or if the petitioner’s claim is not accepted, the reasons should be communicated to the petitioner. Accordingly, the Writ Petition is disposed of with a direction to the first respondent to receive the application of the petitioner and consider the same in terms of the Government of India’s Circular dated 29.10.2007 and pass appropriate orders, in accordance with law, as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of four (4) weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. There shall be no order as to costs. _____________ (G. ROHINI, J) 28th July, 2011 GHN