Government eases rules for passport application

The government has taken a number of steps in the realm of passport policy which is expected to benefit the citizens of India applying for a passport.

As per the extant statutory provisions of the Passport Rules, 1980, all the applicants born on or after 26/01/1989, in order to get a passport, had to, hitherto, mandatorily submit the Birth Certificate as the proof of Date of Birth (DOB). It has now been decided that all applicants of passports can submit any one of the following documents as the proof of DOB while submitting the passport application:

The Birth Certificate (BC) issued by the Registrar of Births & Deaths or the Municipal Corporation or any other prescribed authority whosoever has been empowered under the Registration of Birth & Deaths Act, 1969 to register the birth of a child born in India;

Under the new rules, a person can submit any of the following documents as proof for date of birth: birth certificate issued by the registrar of births and deaths or the municipal corporation; transfer/school leaving/matriculation certificate issued by the school last attended or a recognised educational board; PAN card; Aadhar card or E-Aadhar; copy of the extract of the service record of the applicant (only in respect of government servants) or the pay pension order (in respect of retired government Servants), duly attested or certified by the officer in charge of the administration of the ministry or department concerned of the applicant; driving licence; election photo identity card (EPIC); and policy bond issued by the public life insurance corporations and companies.

A three-member Committee comprising of the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Women and Child Development was constituted to examine various issues pertaining to passport applications where mother/child has insisted that the name of the father should not be mentioned in the passport and also relating to passport issues to children with single parent and to adopted children.

The Report of the Committee has been accepted by the Minister of External Affairs.

The online passport application form now requires the applicant to provide the name of father or mother or legal guardian, i.e., only one parent and not both.

This would enable single parents to apply for passports for their children and to also issue passports where the name of either the father or the mother is not required to be printed at the request of the applicant.

The total number of Annexes prescribed in the Passport Rule, 1980, has been brought down to 9 from the present 15. Annexes A, C, D, E, J, and K have been removed and certain Annexes have been merged.

All the annexes that are required to be given by the applicants would be in the form of a self declaration on a plain paper.

No attestation/swearing by/before any Notary/Executive Magistrate/First Class Judicial Magistrate would be henceforth necessary.

Married applicants would not be required to provide Annexure K or any marriage certificate.

The Passport application form does not require the applicant to provide the name of her/his spouse in case of separated or divorced persons. Such applicants for passports would not be required to provide even the Divorce Decree.

Orphaned children who do not have any proof of DOB such as Birth Certificate or the Matriculation Certificate or the declaratory Court order, may now submit a declaration given by the Head of the Orphanage/Child Care Home on their official letter head of the organization confirming the DOB of the applicant.

In case of children not born out of wedlock, the applicant for the passport of such children should submit only Annexure G while submitting the passport application.

In case of issue of passport to in-country domestically adopted children, submission of the registered adoption deed would no longer be required.

In the absence of any deed to this effect, the passport applicant may give a declaration on a plain paper confirming the adoption.

Government servants, who are not able to obtain the Identity Certificate (Annexure-B)/ No-Objection Certificate (Annexure-M) from their concerned employer and intend to get the passport on urgent basis can now get the passport by submitting a self-declaration in Annexure-‘N’ that he/she has given prior Intimation letter to his/her employer informing that he/she was applying for an ordinary passport to a Passport Issuing Authority.

Sadhus/ Sanyasis can apply for a passport with the name of their spiritual Guru mentioned in the passport application in lieu of their biological parent(s) name(s) subject to their providing of at least one public document such as Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) issued by the Election Commission of India, PAN card, Adhar Card, etc wherein the name of the Guru has been recorded against the column(s) for parent(s) name(s).