CWP No.6180 of 2009 -: 1 :- IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No.6180 of 2009 Date of decision: April 24, 2009. Kewal Singh ...Petitioner(s) v. Union of India & Anr. ...Respondent(s) CORAM:HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURYA KANT 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. Whether to be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Present: Shri Navkiran Singh, Advocate for the petitioner. ORDER Surya Kant, J. - (Oral): Notice of motion. On the asking of the Court, Ms. Amarpreet Sandhu, learned Standing Counsel for the respondents, accepts notice. The petitioner seeks a mandamus to direct the 2nd respondent to change his death of birth as 10.9.1974 in place of 10.12.1974 in his passport bearing No.E-5746062, issued on 9.10.2003 and valid till 8.10.2013. The petitioner's case is that his actual date of birth is 10.9.1974 which is duly mentioned in his matriculation examination certificate dated CWP No.6180 of 2009 -: 2 :- 3.2.1991 (Annexure P-3). The petitioner's date of birth has also been certified by the Headmaster of the Government High School, village Gill, District Ludhiana from where he is stated to have passed out matriculation. The petitioner's further case is that initially passport No.P-518751 was issued to him on 13.9.1993 and on its expiry, another passport bearing No.E-5746062 has been issued on 9.10.2003. In both these passports, due to an inadvertent mistake on his part or by the respondent-authorities, his date of birth has been mentioned as 10.12.1974 instead of 10.9.1974 though he is stated to have attached a copy of the matriculation certificate dated 3.2.1991 while applying for the passport in the year 1993. The petitioner who got married to a girl residing in Canada, wants his date of birth to be corrected in the passport for the immigration purposes. It is his case that he applied on 12.3.2009 (Annexure P-5) but the application has been returned in original by the Office of 2nd respondent with a suggestion that he should apply along with some court order. Having heard Learned Counsel for the parties at some length and considering the documents on record, including the petitioner's matriculation and character certificates, I am of the considered view that the petitioner's request for the change of date of birth in the passport deserves to be considered. This, however, does not mean that the respondent- authorities are precluded from verifying the genuineness of the matriculation and/or the character certificate being relied upon by the petitioner. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of with a direction to respondent No.2 to accept the petitioner's application form and thereafter dispose of the same in the light of the observations made herein-above, as CWP No.6180 of 2009 -: 3 :- early as possible but not later than two months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. Dasti. April 24, 2009. [ Surya Kant ] kadyan Judge