1. The Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India has announced new Passport Rules to streamline, liberalize and ease the process of issue of passport on 23rd December, 2016. The new Passport Rules to be effective from 26th December, 2016 are expected to further ease the process for passport applicants in getting their Passports.
2. In replacement of the existing rules requiring all applicants born on or after 26th January, 1989 to mandatorily submit Birth Certificate as the proof of Date of Birth (DOB), the new Rules allow submission of any of the following documents as the proof of DOB:
(i) Birth Certificate issued by the Registrar of Births & Deaths or the Municipal Corporation or any other prescribed authority empowered under the Registration of Birth & Deaths Act, 1969 to register the birth of a child born in India;
(ii) Transfer/School leaving/Matriculation Certificate issued by the school last attended/recognized 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 DOB of applicant;
(v) 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/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 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; or
(viii) Policy Bond issued by the Public Life Insurance Corporations/Companies having the DOB of the holder of the insurance policy.
3. The rules relating to issue of passports to children with single parent and to adopted children have been revised as follows:
(i) The online passport application form would now require 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;
(ii) All the annexures 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, henceforth, be necessary.(iii) Married applicants would not be required to provide Annexure-K or any marriage certificate.
(iv) 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.
(v) The 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.
(vi) In case of children born out of wedlock, the applicant for the passport of such children should submit only Annexure-G.
(vii) In case of issue of passport to in-country domestically adopted children, submission of registered adoption deed would not be required and the applicant may give a declaration on a plain paper confirming the adoption.
(viii) Government servants, who are not able to obtain the Identity Certificate (Annexure-B)/No-Objection Certificate (Annexure-M) from their employers concerned 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.
(ix) Sadhus/ Sanyasis can apply for a passport with the name of their spiritual Guru 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 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).
