New Birth Proof & Changes to Get Indian Passport

The Indian government has recently simplified passport rules. However, this simplification of rules has NOC or No Objection Certificate. It is not required for Indian government servants from now onward.

This order was passed to streamline, liberalize, and simplify the processing of a passport. This decision was made by the Ministry of External Affairs. Now, passport applicants can have a few more options to enclose as birth proof if they don’t have an original birth certificate.

Here is the list of all documents that you may use as birth proof:

Checklist of Acceptable Birth Proofs

As per S2NRI’s sources and information, the extant statutory provisions of the Passport Rules, 1980 state that all the applicants who are born on or after 26/01/1989 had to submit a birth certificate as a documented proof of date of birth.

But now, this rule has been simplified, which allows all applicants for passports to submit any one of the following documents as documented birth proof with the passport application.  

• Birth Certificate (BC) that must be issued by the Registrar of Births Deaths or the Municipal Corporation or any other recognised government authority that has been empowered to register the birth of a child born in India under the Registration of Birth Deaths Act, 1969;
• Transfer/School leaving/Matriculation Certificate by the school that the applicant previously attended. It can be a recognised educational board certificate that reads the DOB of the applicant;
• PAN Card that the Income Tax Department issues with the Date Of Birth of the applicant;
• Aadhaar Card/E-Aadhaar showing the Date Of Birth of (DOB) applicant;
• A photocopy of the extract of the service record of the applicant (only for the government servants), or the Pay Pension Order (for the retired government servants) having the DOB, which should be duly signed or attested/certified by the officer/in-charge of the Administration of the concerned authority/ Ministry/Department of the applicant;
• Driving licence with the DOB on it issued by the Transport Department of the concerned State Government;
• Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) mentioning the DOB of the applicant issued by the Election Commission of India;
• Policy Bond having DOB of the applicant issued by the Public Life Insurance Corporations/Companies

Besides, there are a few more changes that have been made. Let’s get through them in the next section.

More Changes in Passport

1. Now, the applicant has to provide the name of the father or mother or any legal guardian in the online passport application form. There is no need to mention the name of both parents. It facilitates the single parent with ease to apply for the passport of his or her child/children.
2. Now, the total number of Annexes in the Passport Rule, 1980, is just 9, which were 15 before. Annexes A, C, D, E, J, and K have been discarded and a few more Annexes are merged.

• Now, there is no need to attest by an executive magistrate or first class judicial magistrate, swear by/ notarize all the annexes. These all annexes would be submitted as a self-declaration on plain paper by the applicant.

1. For married applicants, there would be no need to provide the erstwhile Annexure K or any marriage certificate.
2. The separated or divorced applicants don’t need to provide the name of his/her spouse on the application form of the passport. Nor do they need to prove the divorce decree.
3. The children of the unmarried parents can submit only extant Annexure C with the passport application.

• The case of domestically adopted children is also simplified, wherein the registered adoption deed would not be required. If they don’t have it, the passport applicant may declare it on plain paper and confirm the adoption.
• Government servants who don’t have the identity certificate/ no objection certificate from the concerned authority or employer can now have a passport by submitting a self-declaration in extant Annexure- ‘H’. It is meant to provide the prior information to his or her employer or authority that he or she was applying for an ordinary passport. Earlier, extant Annexure-A, extant Annexure-G were mandatory to submit, but now, these two forms are no longer required.

1. In the case of Sadhus and Sanyasis, they need to mention the name of their spiritual Guru in the passport application form in lieu of their biological parent(s) name. Earlier, they have to provide at least a public document, for instance, an Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) issued by the Election Commission of India or PAN Card, or Aadhaar Card, etc. These all documents show the name of the Guru in the column reserved for the parent(s) name.
2. In the case of orphan children who are unable to provide any DOB proof like a Birth Certificate, Matriculation Certificate, or a declaratory Court order, they may now have an option. They can submit a declaration provided by the Head of the Orphanage/Child Care Home on their official letterhead of the organization. It should state or confirm the DOB of the applicant.
3. The date of birth proof is mandatory, as aforementioned at the beginning of this post, to get the passport. Notify that the DOB must match with the documentary proof. If there would be any mismatch between the DOB recorded in the passport and the new proof of DOB submitted by the applicant, the Passport Issuing Authorities (PIA) can consider the explanation of the applicant. Thereafter, it shall make changes in the DOB to find the genuineness of the claim if it is satisfied with the claim or explanation or the document provided to support its claim. In short, it shall administer the requests to revise DOB of the applicant.

• The passport seeker under the ‘Tatkaal’ scheme needs not to get any verification certificate from any Gazetted Officer. Earlier, it was a must. The documents to be submitted for getting a passport under this scheme are now notified vide G.S.R. 39(E) dated 11 January 2018.
• The applicants can now have it under the Normal Scheme on out-of-turn after police authentication. They may not pay any additional fees when submitting certain documents as notified vide G.S.R. 39(E) dated 11 January 2018.

Summary

The date of birth certificate is not required mandatorily for seeking a passport. The applicant can show either of the multiple other documents mentioned in the blog. Besides, there are some more rules changed for the passport applicants to make this process more streamlined, legalized, and easier.