THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE A.V. SESHA SAI WRIT PETITION No.11657 of 2007 Between:
Paritosh Gupta PETITIONER AND The Regional Passport Officer, Secunderabad.
RESPONDENT ORDER:
This writ petition, filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, challenges the action of the respondent-Regional Passport Officer in refusing to correct the date of birth of the petitioner in the passport bearing No.B 1625274 as 11.5.1984 instead of 28.05.1984.
2. Heard Sri B. Vijaysen Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioner and Smt. S. Nanda, learned Additional Standing Counsel for the respondent-Union of India.
3. According to the petitioner, he obtained passport bearing No.B 1625274 from the respondent and his first passport expired in the month of February 2000. Subsequently, he approached the respondent for renewal and the same was issued on 01.03.2000. It is pleaded that the date of birth of the petitioner in the original passport was wrongly mentioned as 28.05.1984 instead of 11.05.1984 and even in the new passport the same error crept in. It is also pleaded that while obtaining the passport, the petitioner submitted birth certificate issued by the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad and the respondent while entering the particulars in accordance with the said birth certificate, wrongly noted the petitioner’s date of birth as 28.05.1984 instead of 11.05.1984. It is also stated in the writ affidavit that due to inadvertence, neither the petitioner nor his parents noticed the said mistake crept in the original passport. It is the further case of the petitioner that during the month of May 2007 when he noticed the said error in the date of birth, he approached the respondent personally and as directed by one of the officials he approached the Tatkal Section on 18.05.2007 and made a request before the concerned authorities to correct his date of birth and he was given token No.73 by the concerned officer. It is further stated that the concerned officer having seen his documents opined that the petitioner need to approach the Court of law for correction of date of birth. It is the case of the petitioner that he brought to the notice of the officer that as per circular, date of birth can be corrected by the Department without any order of the Court, and despite which, the officer concerned refused to entertain his application for correction of date of birth. In the above background, the present writ petition came to be filed by the petitioner.
4. In order to substantiate the case of the petitioner the certificate of birth issued by the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad under the provisions of Section 17 of the Births and Deaths Act 1969 is enclosed with the writ petition. The complaint precisely in the present writ petition is that the respondent-authority refused to entertain the application of the petitioner despite furnishing necessary information in support of his request. In these circumstances, this Court deems it appropriate to permit the petitioner to make an application before the respondent for redressal of his grievance within a period of one month along with supporting documents for consideration of the respondent.
5. For the aforesaid reasons the writ petition is disposed of permitting the petitioner to submit an application for correction of his date of birth in the passport along with supporting documents, within a period of one month from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. If any such application is filed within the time stipulated above, the respondent shall pass appropriate orders on the same in accordance with law within a period of one month thereafter. No order as to costs. As a sequel, the miscellaneous petitions, if any, shall stand closed.
JUSTICE A.V. SESHA SAI.
25th November, 2014 Js.