The government is taking several steps to ease the passport making process. From now onwards, we don’t have to submit our birth certificate to get a passport. Now, Aadhaar or PAN card among a host of documents could be used to establish proof of birth. The government has informed Parliament regarding the new proceedings.
Earlier, according to the Passport Rules, 1980, all applicants born on or after 26/01/1989, had to submit a birth certificate which was a mandatory provision. But now they can submit any one of these, transfer/school leaving/Matriculation Certificate issued by the school last attended/recognized educational board containing the DOB of the applicant; PAN Card; Aadhaar Card/E-Aadhaar; driving license, Voter ID cards, even LIC policy bonds.
Also, from now neither divorce decrees, nor adoption certificates will be required. While orphaned children only require a document from their orphanage to confirm their date of birth.
Applicants over 60 and below 8 years of age will get a 10% discount on passport fees. New passports will have personal details printed in both Hindi and English.
The annexes to the passport form have been reduced from 15 to 9. No attestation/swearing by/before any Notary/Executive Magistrate/First Class Judicial Magistrate would be henceforth necessary, which also means that married applicants don’t need to provide a marriage certificate, nor the name of spouse if they are divorced or separated. All these rules have been in operation since December 2016.