APHC010097052015 IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATI (Special Original Jurisdiction) a -"rx? A A 'v', ,.^r / FRIDAY, THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF JUNE TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE I PRESENT THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE SUBBA REDDY SATTI WRIT PETITION NO: 1917 OF 2015 Between: Gurram Ramu, S/o. Gurram Ramana, Aged about 23 years, Occupation: Unemployee, R/o. H.No.4-60B, Thimmapuram Village, S. Rayavarm, Visakhapatnam Rural, Andhra Pradesh - 531 083. ...Petitioner AND 1. The Union of India, Rep. by the Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Cabinet Secretariat, Raisina Hill, New Delhi. 2. The Passport Officer, Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), Botcha Square, Door No.39-6-71, Kapparada Village, Opposite Birla Junction, Murali Nagar, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh - 530 007. ...Respondents Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed therewith, the High Court may be pleased to issue a Writ, order or direction more particularly a writ of mandamus declaring the action of the Respondent No.2 in not changing the date of birth as 16-06-1992 in his passport bearing No.H1761616 issued 22-11-2008 as per his Secondary School Certificate issued by the Board of Secondary Education, Andhra Praadesh vide No.FF 760867 dated 10-05- 2007 as illegal, contrary to law and principles of natural justice and consequently direct the Respondent No.2 to reissue a Passport as per his on Application Reference No. 14-1007420857 dated date of birth as 16-06-1992 instead of 23-08-1987. 02-09-2014 by correcting his jA NO: 1 OF 2016(WPMP 40401 OF 2nifi Petition under Section 151 CPC praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed in support of the petition, the High Court may be pleased to fix an early date of hearing of W.P.No. 1917 of 2015 in the interest of justice. JANOi_1OF2020 Petition under Section 151 CPC praying that in the circumstances stated may be pleased to renew the passport of the petitioner along with the correction in the date of birth entry and issue the same. in the affidavit filed in support of the petition, the High Court direct the respondent No. 2 to also Counsel for the Petitioner: SRI M. SOLOMON RAJU Counsel for the Respondent No.1 : SRI THENEPALLI NIRANJAN, « SC FOR CENTRAL. GOVT Counsel for the Respondent No.2 : SRI B. KRISHNA MOHAN The Court made the following order: APHC010097052015 IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATI (Special Original Jurisdiction) [3331] FRIDAY. THE TWENTY SEVENTH DAY OF JUNE TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE PRESENT THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE SUBBA REDDY SATTI WRIT PETITION NO: 1917/2015 Between: 1.GURRAM RAMU,, S/0 GURRAM RAMANA. AGED ABOUT 23 YEARS, OCCUPATION: UNEMPLOYEE, R/0 H.NO.4-60B, THIMMAPURAM VILLAGE. S. RAYAVARM, VISAKHAPATNAM RURAL, ANDHRA PRADESH - 531 083. ...PETITIONER AND 1.THE UNION OF INDIA. REP. BY THE SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, CABINET SECRETARIAT, RAISINA HILL, NEW DELHI. 2.THE PASSPORT OFFICER, PASSPORT SEVA KENDRA (PSK), BOTCHA SQUARE, DOOR NO.39-6-71, KAPPARADA VILLAGE, OPPOSITE BIRLA JUNCTION. MURALI NAGAR, VISAKHAPATNAM, ANDHRA PRADESH - 530 007. ...RESPONDENT(S): Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed therewith, the High Court may be pleased to issue a Writ, order or direction more particularly a writ of mandamus declaring the action of the Respondent No.2 in not changing the date of birth as 16-06-1992 in his passport bearing No.H1761616 issued on 22-11-2008 as per his Secondary School Certificate issued by the Board of Secondary Education, Andhra Pradesh vide No.FF 760867 dated 10-05-2007 as illegal, contrary to law and principles of natural justice and consequently direct the Respondent No.2 to reissue a Passport as per his Application SRS,J W.P.No.1917 of 2015 Reference No.14-1007420857 dated 02-09-2014 by correcting his date of birth as 16-06-1992 instead of 23-08-1987 and pass lA NO: 1 OF 2016(WPMP 40401 OF 2016 Petition under Section 151 CPC praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed in support of the petition, the High Court may be pleased to fix an early date of hearing of W.P.No.1917 of 2015 in the interest of justice. lA NO: 1 OF 2020 Petition under Section 151 CPC praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed in support of the petition, the High Court may be pleased To direct the respondent No. 2 to also renew the passport of the petitioner along with the correction in the date of birth entry and issue the same and pass Counsel for the Petitioner: 1.M SOLOMON RAJU Counsel for the Respondent(S): 1.THENEPALLI NIRANJAN SC FOR CENTRAL. GOVT 2.B KRISHNA MOHAN The Court made the following: :: ORDER:: Impugning the inaction of respondent No.2 in changing the date of birth of the petitioner in the passport bearing No.H1761616 issued on 22.11.2008, as per the Secondary School Certificate issued by the Board of Secondary Education, Andhra Pradesh, the above writ petition has been filed. 2. Heard Sri M. Solmon Raju, learned counsel for the petitioner, and Sri T. Niranjan, learned panel counsel, appeared for respondents. 3. In pursuance of the application made by the petitioner, respondent No.2 issued a passport/travel document bearing No.H1761616 on 22.11.2008 for id years valid up to 21.11.2018, based upon the information furnished by the f SRS.J W.P.No.1917 of 2015 petitioner. The petitioner made an application vide reference No.14- 1007420857, for re-issuance of passport with correct date of birth as 16.06.1992 instead of 23.08.1987, wherein an endorsement was made as ‘D.O.B may call for court change order’ by the authority. The writ petition was listed on 03.02.2015. Thereafter, the writ petition was admitted on 12.02.2015. 4. Sri Nirajan, learned panel counsel, submitted a copy of the Office Memorandum vide No.VI/401/2/5/2001 Ministry of External Affairs CPV Division PV-I Section, dated 26.11.2015, regarding the guidelines for change or correction of date of birth entries in the passport. The guidelines were issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, in pursuance of the order passed by the High Court of Kerala in Jayakumar v. UOI & others in W.P.No.9073 of 2015. Clause No.4 of the Office Memorandum is extracted herewith: 5. Hence, the core principle of the Judgment of the High Court of Kerala is that only the bonafide claims of the applicants for the change/correction of the date of birth in the passport should be accepted and that too if the same are submitted by them within a reasonable time limit after the issuance of passport. In pursuance of the directions of the High Court, it has been decided that henceforth, all the PIA shall follow the following instructions/guidelines in order to consider the claims/request the applicant for the change/correction of entries regarding of date of birth in their passports: ‘4. (i) Where an applicant claims clerical/technical mistake in the entry relating to birth/place or birth in the passport and asks for rectification/correction: In all such cases, the documents produced earlier as proof of date of birth/place of birth at the time of issue of passport may be perused (if not already destroyed) by PIA. In case, it is a clerical mistake either by the applicant or the PIA, date/place of birth correction may be allowed by issue of fresh booklet; In the former case by charging fee for fresh passport and I the latter ‘gratis’ (same as SRS,J W.P.No.1917 of 2015 mentioned in Ministry’s Circular No.V1/401/2/5/2001, dated 29.10.2007). (ii) If an applicant applies for the change of date of birth In the passport within a reasonable period of time I.e. within a span of five (5) years from the date of issue of passport having the alleged wrong date of birth, with the birth certificate Issued by the Registrar of Births & Deaths stating that the date of birth recorded in the passport w/as based on the entries mentioned documents other than the Birth Certificate, the request of such an applicant irrespective of the difference in the dates of birth, may be considered by the Passport Issuing Authority. However, before the issuance of passport with changed date of birth, the Passport Authority shall also levy appropriate penalty on the applicant for obtaining passport on previous occasion by providing wrong information regarding his/her date of birth. (Hi) The cases where the applicant comes to PIA for change/correction with regard to date of birth in the Passport after a period of five years from the date of issue of passport with alleged wrong date of birth, no such request shall be entertained/accepted by the PIA and be rejected out rightly. However, an exemption in this regard may be given to an applicant who was minor at the time when passport with alleged wrong date of birth was Issued to him. /As and when such an applicant after attaining the age of majority applies for the passport with the request to change the date of birth in the passport Issued to him when he was minor, the PIA irrespective of the duration of the issuance of passport may accept his case for consideration and if is satisfied with the claim and document(s) submitted by the applicant, may accept his request for change of date of birth in the passport without imposition of any penalty, (iv) In no way, the Passport Authority will relegate the applicant to obtain the declaratory court order to carry out changes with regard to date of birth in the passport, as the Passport Authority subject to the condition that the case has been submitted by the applicant within the stipulated SRS,J W.P.No.1917 of 2015 limit of 5 years from the date of issuance of passport (except the cases of minor passport holder as detailed in para 5(ii) above) would now be eligible to accept the genuine cases Irrespective of the difference of dates of birth. ” Thus, as seen from the guidelines issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, one has to make an application within five years from the date of issue of a passport. If such an application is made, the authority may consider and change the date of birth by levying penalty. 6. 7. In the case at hand, the travel document of the petitioner expired on 21.11.2018. 8. At this juncture, learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner will make a fresh application by annexing all the relevant documents. Given th$ facts and circumstances of the case, the Writ Petition is disposed of, giving liberty to the petitioner to make a fresh application for issuance o( a passport by annexing all the relevant documents. If such application is made, the learned authority shall consider issuance of a passport by following the provisions of the Passport Act and the Rules made thereunder and the guidelines regarding the correction of date of birth. No order as to costs. 9. an As a sequel, pending miscellaneous petitions, if any, shall stand closed. Sd/- M. SRINIVAS REGISTRAR //TRUE COPY// SECTION OFFICER To. 1. The Secretary, Union of India, Secretariat, Raisina Hill, New Delhi. ® Square, Door No.dy b 71 Kapparada Village, Opposite Birla Junction Murali Naoar Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh - 530 007. ^ ’ Raju, Advocate [OPUC] t' !° S'".' Niranjan, SC for central. ^ o. One CC to Sri B. Krishna Mohan, Advocate [OPUCl 6. Two CD Copies ^ the Ministry of External Affairs, Cabinet Govt. [OPUC] Cnr HIGH COURT DATED:27/06/2025 ^ 2 1 JUL 2025 J)S ^Sj^ent Sectiopx'i^ ORDER WP NO. 1917 OF 2015 DISPOSING OF THE W.P. WITHOUT COSTS