P&H HC raps Authorities for adopting ‘bureaucratic attitude’ in not reissuing passport of applicant on ground of slight variation in name of parents in his middle and high School certificates

Read Order: Lovish Bajaj v. Union of India and Others

Monika Rahar

Chandigarh, March 3, 2022: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that the response of the authorities concerned suffered from a total non-application of mind and reflected the bureaucratic attitude adopted by them in a case where the Authorities denied the re-issuance of applicant’s passport on the ground that the name of his parents in the previous passport was on the basis of his middle school certificate, while the petitioner attached his class Xth and XIIth certificate, having slight variation in names of parents with his re-issuance application.

In this matter placed before the Bench of Justice Sidhir Mittal, a passport was issued to the petitioner in the year 2011 in which the father’s name was mentioned as Kuldeep Rai and the mother’s name was mentioned as Sangita Bajaj. The said passport expired and thus, an application was filed for re-issuance of the same with the name of the father as ‘Kuldeep Rai Bajaj’ and the name of the mother as ‘Sangita Kumari’. In support of the application, the Class-X and Class-XII certificates of the petitioner, passport of the mother and passport of the father were annexed.

The respondents rejected the application on the ground that the names mentioned in the earlier passport were on the basis of a middle school certificate. Hence, the instant writ petition was filed. 

In response to this petition, a reply on behalf of the respondents was filed, according to which, the names mentioned in the earlier passport were on the basis of the middle school certificate. It was contended that the said certificate was not corrected and thus, the request of the petitioner could not be granted.

After taking into consideration the facts of the case, the Court opined that the reply of the respondents suffered from a total non-application of mind and reflected the bureaucratic attitude adopted by the respondents. 

Further, the Court added that after passing the middle school examination, the petitioner passed the Class-X and Class-XII examination also, wherein, the correct name of parents were mentioned. It was also observed that their passports also support the case of the petitioner and yet, the respondents were placing reliance upon the middle school certificate.

Thus, in view of the above, the writ petition was allowed.