Man seeks court direction to passport officer for issue of

A 24-year-old man has sought a direction to the Regional passport officer to issue him a passport as the original one obtained by his late father when he was a minor, was not traceable nor had he any knowledge about it as his mother had divorced his father before his death.
The petitioner, who got a job as male nurse in Cambridge, submitted that he had attached a police certificate stating that his passport was not traceable.But the officials were not issuing him a new passport on the ground that he had not surrendered his old one.
The petitioner submitted that he was born on February 9,1991. In his case, both Delhi Corporation and Madurai Corporation had issued him birth certificates.

The passport officer rejected his passport application on the ground that a passport had been issued in his name in April 2001, when he was a minor, at the instance of his father and it should be surrendered before a new one was issued.
He said his mother had obtained divorce in 2001 and both he and his mother were not aware of the passport obtained by his father. As his father also had died, he could not obtain the old passport now.
The regional passport officer submitted that a passport had been issued to the petitioner at Delhi, based on the birth certificate given by Delhi corporation.

Now he had applied for a passport with birth certificate issued by the Madurai corporation. The respective officers had been asked to verify the genuineness of the certificate and hence issue of the passport was being delayed,he said.
Justice R.Subbiah, after hearing both sides on Friday, reserved orders.