The ministry of external affairs will soon issue new passports without the last page that contains details including the residential address of the holder
New Delhi: The ministry of external affairs will
soon issue new passports without the last page that contains details
including the residential address of the holder, a statement from the
ministry said on Friday. This effectively means that the passport may
not serve as an address proof in the near future.
The foreign ministry’s response came after a report in the Hindustan Timeson
Friday which said that the government was looking at printing new
passports without the last page containing address details of the
holder.
Foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar in a statement on Friday said
that the decision comes on the back of the ministry accepting
recommendations of a three-member committee comprising officials from
the ministry of external affairs and the ministry of women and child
development.
The committee examined questions related to “various issues pertaining
to passport applications where mother/child had insisted that the name
of the father should not be mentioned in the passport and also relating
to passport issues to children with single parent and to adopted
children,” Kumar said.
“One of the recommendations of the Committee was that the ministry of
external affairs should explore the possibility of doing away with the
printing of information contained in the Passport Booklet such as names
of father/legal guardian, mother, spouse, and address contained in the
last page of the passport,” he said.
The ministry examined the recommendations of the committee, besides the
guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organisation regarding
machine-readable travel documents, and “decided that the last page of
the passport and other travel documents issued under the Passports Act,
1967, and Passport Rules, 1980, would no longer be printed,” Kumar
added.
Passports are issued in three colours: red, white and blue. Government
officers are issued white passports, diplomats carry red ones and all
others are issued blue ones.
The regular blue passports also have two categories: one, where
emigration checks are required and the other where they are not. Since
the last page of the passport, which usually carried this information,
will not be printed anymore, the ministry will issue those people
requiring emigration checks orange colour passports, Kumar said.
The changes will not affect people holding the old passports, which will continue to remain valid till they expire.
The Indian Security Press in Nasik will begin making the new passports
soon, Kumar said, adding that until they are designed, manufactured and
made available to the ministry, the last page will continue to have the
details.
Source: Live minit
