On Friday, the Ministry of External Affairs announced a list of rules to be followed while issuing new passports. Here’s a full list of the updated rules, as reported by a press release on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) website:

Vikas Swarup. Image courtesy: Twitter/@MEAIndia

PROOF OF DATE OF BIRTH:

• As per the extant statutory provisions of the Passport Rules, 1980, all applicants born on or after 26/01/1989, in order to get a passport, had to hitherto submit their birth certificate as proof of date of birth (DOB). It has now been decided that the applicants may submit any of the following documents as proof of DOB:
  (i) Birth Certificate (BC) issued by the registrar of births and deaths or the municipal corporation or any other prescribed authority that is empowered under the Registration of Birth & Deaths Act, 1969, to register the birth of a child born in India.
  (ii) Transfer certificate/school leaving certificate/Matriculation certificate issued by the school last attended and recognised by the educational board containing the DOB of the applicant.
  (iii) PAN card issued by the Income Tax Department with the DOB of applicant.
  (iv) Aadhar card/E-Aadhar having the applicant’s DOB of applicant.
  (v) Copy of the extract of the service record of the applicant (only for government servants) or the pay pension order (in respect of retired government servants), duly attested/certified by the officer/in-charge of the administration of the concerned ministry/department of the applicant, having his DOB.
  (vi) Driving licence issued by the transport department of the concerned state government, having the DOB of applicant.
  (vii) Election photo identity card issued by the Election Commission of India having the DOB of applicant.
  (viii) Policy bonds issued by the Public Life Insurance Corporations or companies having the DOB of the holder of the insurance policy.

REPORT OF THE INTER-MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE:

• A three-member committee, comprising 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 the mother or child has insisted that the name of the father should not be mentioned in the passport, and also relating to passport issues of children with single parents and of adopted children. The report of the committee has been accepted by the minister of external affairs.The following policy changes have been made inter-alia on the basis of the recommendations of this committee:
  (i) The online passport application form now requires the applicant to provide the name of father or mother or legal guardian, ie 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.
  (ii) The total number of annexes prescribed in the Passport Rule, 1980, has been brought down to nine from the present 15. Annexes A,C,D,E,J and K have been removed and certain annexes have been merged.
  (iii) All annexes that are required to be given by applicants would be in the form of a self-declaration on a plain paper. No attestation or swearing by or before any notary/executive magistrate/first class judicial magistrate would be henceforth necessary.
  (iv) Married applicants would not be required to provide Annexure K or any marriage certificate.
  (v) 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
  (vi) Orphaned children who do not have any proof of DOB, such as birth certificate or 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 letterhead confirming the DOB of the applicant.
  (vii) 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.
  (viii) 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, passport applicants may give a declaration on a plain paper confirming the adoption.
  (ix) Government servants, who are not able to obtain the identity certificate (Annexure B) or 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 s/he has given a prior intimation letter to his/her employer informing that s/he was applying for an ordinary passport to a passport issuing authority.
  (x) Sadhus and 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, PAN card, Aadhar card, etc., wherein the name of the guru has been recorded against the column(s) for parent(s) name(s).
• Necessary notifications would be soon published in the official gazette to confirm these changes. Instructions are also being issued to the passport issuing authorities in India and abroad on these revised regulations.
• The ministry of external affairs expects that the above changes in passport rules would further ease the process for passport applicants in getting their passport. At the same time, it would enable this ministry to continue to deliver passport-related services to the citizens in a timely, transparent, more accessible and reliable manner, and in a comfortable environment through streamlined processes and committed, trained and motivated workforce.

First Published On : Dec 23, 2016 17:14 IST