We Are In AI Era, Documents Issued By Govt Must Conform To Global Standards: Kerala High Court

We are in the AI era and government instrumentalities ought to be abreast with emerging global demands in order to have the vision of 'digital India' to materialize, the Kerala High Court observed when faced with the instance of a Police Clearance Certificate issued by an Indian authority being rejected by the authorities in Kuwait.

Single bench of Justice C.S. Dias asked the competent authority under the Ministry of External Affairs to take immediate steps to upgrade the central database and issue the Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) with the barcode, scanned photograph and details of criminal cases of the person concerned. 

"We are in the AI era and the 5G revolution. Our Nation is a front-runner in technology. We are striving to make India Digital with initiatives like Indiastack.global, to have a repository of open standards and interoperability principles of key projects implemented under the Digital India Mission like Aadhaar, UPI, Digilocker etc. The certificates issued by the government and statutory authorities have to be internationally accepted, especially when India is a signatory to international conventions and treaties". 

The petitioner in this case is employed in Kuwait, and was alleged to have committed matrimonial offences by his estranged wife, and was enlarged on bail. The petitioner averred that despite the Regional Passport Office having issued him the Police Clearance Certificate (PCC), pursuant to which he went to Kuwait for employment, the Embassy of Kuwait refused to accept the certificate since it did not contain a barcode.

It is the case of the petitioner that the stance of the respondent Passport Office that PCCs are outsourced through outside agencies and that the former does not have the provision to issue PCC with a barcode when there is a pending criminal case, is untenable and unjustifiable. Advocate P.I. Davis argued on behalf of the petitioner that the said authority is duty-bound to upgrade their system and issue globally acceptable certificates.

The Deputy Solicitor General of India S. Manu submitted that the Regional Passport Office has no access to make changes in the computer system of the central database and incorporate the petitioner’s criminal case details. The DSGI drew the attention of the Court to the existing Passport Seva Project System, as per which the Passport Issuing Authorities can generate a PCC through the system, with a barcode and scanned photograph as per the format extracted in the statement, only if no criminal case is registered against the applicant.

"In the instant case, as there is a pending crime against the petitioner, the first respondent is helpless to incorporate the criminal case details, the barcode and the scanned photograph of the petitioner. The first respondent (Regional Passport Office) is not in a position to alter the central computer system," the DSGI argued, thus seeking the petition to be dismissed. 

The Court found the stance adopted by the Regional Passport Office to be unacceptable.  

"When situations like the one on hand arise, which are global demands due to the emergence of technology, we cannot just throw our hands in the air and express helplessness. A certificate with a barcode and scanned photograph quickly confirms the information and identifies the person from large databases by scanning or swiping the document. It also eliminates the cumbersome process of apostille stamping/attestation of the document by foreign missions. Barcodes also have high-security features and eradicate fraud," the Court observed. 

The Court was thus of the firm view that if the nation's vision to have a digital India is to materialise, there ought to be willingness to change in order catch up with the global world and not adopt a rigid approach. The Court opined that the issue could be resolved by making minor modifications in the central database so that such litigations can be averted in the future. 

It therefore directed the Regional Passport Office to forthwith take up the matter with the competent authorities to make necessary modifications in the central system so that the issue could be averted throughout the country. 

The Court directed the Regional Passport Office to forward a copy of the judgment to the Ministry of External Affairs within a month of receipt of the copy of the judgment, and in turn directed the latter to take immediate steps to upgrade the central database and issue the PCC certificate to the petitioner with the barcode, his scanned photograph and the criminal case details. The DSGI was also directed to forward a copy of the judgment to the aforementioned Ministry for information and compliance.

Case Title: Ejo P.J. v. Regional Passport Office & Anr. 

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Ker) 265 

Click Here To Read/Download The Judgment