JUDGMENT
The grievance of the petitioner is that his request for correction of the entries in his passport relating to the date of birth and the place of birth, is not being entertained by the authorities under the Passports Act on the ground that he has not applied for correction of the entries within five years from the date of issue of the passport.
2. The learned Assistant Solicitor General appearing for the respondents attempted to justify the stand of the authorities, relying on Office Memorandum No.VI/401/2/5/2001 dated 26.11.2015 issued by the Central Government. According to him, correction of the entries in the passport as regards date of birth is now governed by the said Office Memorandum which provides that application for correction shall be submitted within five years from the date of issue of the passport. As regards the entries relating to the place of birth, the learned Assistant Solicitor General stated that the respondents are prepared to correct the
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same, if a request is made for the said purpose with supporting documents.
3. This Court, in W.P.(C) No.7274 of 2016 and connected cases, took the view that the Office Memorandum relied on by the respondents shall not stand in the way of the passport authorities entertaining genuine applications for correction of the entries in the passport relating to date of birth. In the light of the judgment of this Court in the said batch of cases, I deem it appropriate to direct the authorities to consider the request of the petitioner for correction of the entry in his passport as regards the date of birth, as directed in the said cases. Further, in the light of the submission made by the learned Assistant Solicitor General, I also deem it appropriate to direct the authorities under the Passports Act to consider the request of the petitioner for correction of the entry relating to the place of birth. In the result, the writ petition is allowed and the second respondent is directed to consider the request of the petitioner for correction of the entries in his passport as regards the date of birth and the place of birth, if a fresh application is filed in this regard, within three weeks from the date of receipt of
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a copy of this judgment. The petitioner shall produce evidence sufficient to establish the genuineness of the requests, along with the application. The Passport Officer shall carry out the corrections requested, if the requests are found to be genuine. The petitioner is at liberty to produce a certified copy of this judgment for compliance before the Passport Officer.
Sd/-
P.B.SURESH KUMAR, JUDGE.
Kvs/-
// true copy //
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