Kerala High Court Allows Plea Seeking Correction Of Deceased Parent's Name On Passport

The Kerala High Court recently allowed a plea seeking a correction in the parent's name on the passport even after their demise, provided that documents were produced to the satisfaction of the Regional Passport Officer. 

Assailing the request of the petitioner, the Passport Officer had argued before Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas that there was no law under which a person can change the name of the deceased parents and that the existing passport was also subject to revocation if the same has been fraudulently obtained.

The petitioner was an Indian passport holder planning to work abroad. She had received offer letters from various reputed hospitals. However, upon going through her documents, she noticed that her date of birth and father's name were wrongly entered on the passport. 

She contended that the date of birth was shown as 03.05.1987 instead of 23.05.1986. Similarly, her father's name was shown as 'Sebastian' on her passport instead of 'Devasia'.

Advocate Manas P Hameed represented the petitioner while ASG P. Vijayakumar appeared on behalf of the respondent.

The petitioner submitted that recently after downloading her birth certificate, she noticed that her father's name was mistakenly displayed as 'Devasia' instead of 'Sebastian'.

On realizing the mistake, she verified the other documents and decided to correct the mistake despite her father having expired.

Upon receiving her application, the Joint Commissioner for Government Examinations, after verifying the records, corrected the name of her father on her Matriculation Certificate as well.

Therefore, all the records produced by the petitioner showed that her father's name is 'Devasia', except for the passport, where it still showed 'Sebastian'. 

Accordingly, she applied for correction of the date of birth as well as the name of her father. She also made a representation seeking to carry out the correction at the earliest. 

Thereafter, the Regional Passport Officer filed a statement stating that her initial passport was issued on 07.12.2009 and that she had travelled using the said passport. The Officer added that the renewed passport issued on 25.06.2019 also showed the date of birth and the name of the father as '03.05.1987' and as 'Sebastian' respectively.

The Court however noticed that as per the guidelines of the Ministry of External Affairs, the mistakes in respect of the parent's name could be corrected even after their death, based upon the documents that are to be produced to the satisfaction of the officer.

Therefore, it was found that the respondents could not go back upon the guidelines issued by the Ministry.

Accordingly, the Bench directed the respondent to provide an appointment day to the petitioner at the earliest, not later than four weeks. It was also directed that the verification of the records produced by the petitioner in support of the claim for correcting the alleged mistakes in the passport shall be done expeditiously and a decision would be taken within four weeks of the appointment.

Case Title: Deepnamol Sebastian v. Regional Passport Officer & Anr

Click Here To Read The Order