T.R. RAMACHANDRAN NAIR, J.
The petitioner has approached this Court seeking for a direction to quash Ext.P4 letter issued by the Regional Passport Officer, Ernakulam. Therein, with reference to an application of the petitioner to issue a fresh passport, she was directed to obtain a court order for changing her date of birth.
2. The petitioner is the holder of an Indian Passport bearing No.Q 920108 dated 03/12/1993. Ext.P1 is the copy of relevant page of the passport. The date of birth recorded therein is 20/05/1960 instead of the correct date of birth i.e. 20/05/1965. This was not noticed by the petitioner at that point of time. She got married on 20/09/1986. Her husband is presently employed at Sharjah in Dubai. She also wants to join her husband after getting a family visa. The passport issued already expired on 02/12/2003. For obtaining a new passport, she filed a fresh application and surrendered her old passport. Ext.P2 is the relevant page of the S.S.L.C book wherein date of birth is shown as 20/05/1965 and Ext.P3 is the certificate issued by the local Panchayat, under the Registration of W.P.(C). No.36653/2009, Birth and Death Act and the relevant Rules wherein also the date of birth is shown as 20/05/1965.
3. The respondents have filed a statement producing two circulars as Exts.R1(a) and R1(b). It is pointed out that since the petitioner requested for passport after correcting the date of birth after a period of more than two years, she was advised to furnish a declaratory order by the concerned Court. The same is specified as per Exts.R1(a) and R1(b) Circulars.
4. Going by Ext.R1(b) Circular, the Ministry of External Affairs has revised instructions contained in Ext.R1(a), in the light of the decision of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Civil Writ Appeal No.13722/2007 [Shri Resham Singh v. Union of India] wherein the Court was of the view that if there is a conflict between the entries in the birth Certificate issued by the Registrar of Births and Deaths and the entry of birth in a school leaving certificate, the entry in the birth certificate issued by the Registrar of Births and Deaths would prevail and except where the certificate is unreliable suspicious or appears to be procured or manipulated, parties should not be relegated to civil Courts in a mechanical manner. W.P.(C). No.36653/2009
5. The question is whether such a course has to be adopted in this case.
6. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the certificate of the local authority and the relevant page of the S.S.L.C book are very clear and convincing.
7. The petitioner is seeking for issuance of renewal of passport. Evidently, the date of birth shown in the original passport is 20/05/1960 instead of 20/05/1965 which does not tally with Exts.P2 and P3. Therefore, the year 1960 can only be a mistake. There is no conflict between the relevant page of the S.S.L.C book Ext.P2 and the birth certificate issued by the competent authority.
8. In the Judgment of this Court in Aboo v. Regional Passport Officer [2008 (1) KLT 992] after referring to the regulations Exts.R1(a) and (b) and the decision of the Pubjab and Haryana Court, it was held in paragraph (12) that "if so, the passport issuing Authority is free to reconsider the claim of the petitioner with reference to the extract of the admission register of the Government High School, Pattikad and carry out the necessary rectifications regarding the date of birth of the petitioner, in case such a course is possible in the light of the circulars referred to above." W.P.(C). No.36653/2009
9. Therefore, only if the certificates are found to be unacceptable alone the petitioner need be directed to obtain a declaratory order from a First Class Judicial Magistrate. Infact, a Division Bench of this Court in O.P.No.2012/1994 after considering Note to paragraph (4) of the Passport Information Booklet had held that when an application is made to Judicial Magistrate, he will go into the said question and pass necessary orders on the petitioner producing the relevant materials in regard to the correct date of birth of the writ petitioner. Herein, since the petitioner has already produced Exts.P2 and P3, the application for renewal can be considered by the Passport Officer himself and if the genuineness of the certificates are acceptable, the passport will be renewed with the correct date of birth. Appropriate action will be taken within a period of three weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this Judgment.
The writ petition is disposed of as above. No costs.
(T.R. Ramachandran Nair, Judge.)
