Petitioner has approached this Court for a direction to the respondent to consider his application for correction of date of birth in the passport. In the passport, his date of birth is shown as 01/07/1960. The passport is valid from 24/04/2003 to 23/04/2013. According to the petitioner, as per the date of birth in Ext.P2 extract of Admission Register of the petitioner’s school, his date of birth is shown as 29/05/1964. It is stated that, this mistake has crept in at the instance of the agent who submitted the application for issuance of the passport.
2. The law is well settled. The Passport Officer has the authority to correct the date of birth in the passport relying upon school records. A Division Bench of this Court in Swapna Siju v. Union of India [2012(4) KLT 419] has held that Secondary School Leaving Certificate could be W.P.C.No.14355/2014 2 relied upon. That is not the instance here. Petitioner has only an extract of school admission register. The veracity of the said document has to be considered. In the case of any doubt, the petitioner has to obtain a decree by filing a civil suit. Under these circumstances, it is for the respondent to consider whether the entry in the date of birth of the petitioner in the passport is on account of a mistake and whether the document relied upon is genuine. If so, it is open for the Passport Officer to rely upon Ext.P2 to make necessary correction.
In the above circumstances, the writ petition is disposed of directing the 2nd respondent to consider the application submitted by the petitioner for correction of date of birth in his passport after conducting necessary enquiry and pass appropriate orders in the matter.
(sd/-) (A.M.SHAFFIQUE, JUDGE) jsr W.P.C.No.14355/2014 3