High Court of Delhi

Shalu Nigam & Anr v. Regional Passport Office & Anr

17.05.2016

Civil

Passport department apathy blamed on uncooperative software

A mother’s name is sufficient in certain cases to apply for a passport, especially since a single woman can be a natural guardian and parent, the Delhi High Court held.

The court was mindful that requiring the petitioner to mention her father’s name, in the instant case, would compel her to alter not only her name but also the identity she had been using since birth.

The court also ordered modification of the Passport Department’s software if the same did not allow applications unless the father’s name was filled out. Justice Manmohan proffered, “technology is intended to ease and facilitate transactions and cannot be the basis for creating defeating anybody’s legal right”.

Suspicion was cast on passport authorities’ claims, particularly as a passport for the Petitioner had been issued on two previous occasions, in 2005 and 2011, without insisting on her father’s name.

Tags : passport father’s name guardianship procedure

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