Can CIC expedite the process of amendment in passport?
5 Jan, 2013Background
The appellant claimed that in the passport issued to her there were some wrong entries and that she had applied to the authorities for making relevant amendments in her passport. She later filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) seeking to know about the progress of the action taken on her application. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed her that she had already been advised to deposit the passport application form duly filled in along with Rs. 1000/- as application fee so that action could be taken for issuing a correct passport.
View of CIC
The Central Information Commission (CIC) observed that the PIO has informed the appellant about what she must do so that further action could be taken in the matter and a correct passport could be issued. The CIC also held that the issue of passport to a citizen or making amendments in the passport is entirely in the domain of the competent authority and that the Commission could not expedite the process through RTI. The citizen will have to complete the formalities as prescribed before a passport can be issued or amendments could be made in the existing passport. The CIC rejected the appeal and advised the appellant to follow the guidelines already conveyed to her in order to get a correct passport issued.
Citation: Ms. Anjali Kumar v. Ministry of External Affairs in File No. CIC/SM/A/2012/000892
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/931
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