HC directs issue of passport to girl with stepfather's name

The High Court of Karnataka has directed the Regional Passport Office (RPO) to issue a passport within six weeks to a girl with her stepfather's name on it.

Sandhya (name changed) had moved the high court, seeking directions that her biological father's name be replaced with her stepfather's name in her passport.

Sandhya's biological father had abandoned her mother after her birth. The mother remarried seven years after divorce was granted to her as she was unable to trace her husband.

She applied for a passport in 2015 and mentioned her step-father's name in the column for father's name in the application. Among documents submitted to the RPO, she had her biological father's name on her birth certificate and her step-father's name on her class 10 marks card.

When RPO officials pointed this out, Sandhya narrated her story and made a request to have her step-father's name on the passport.

But the RPO issued a passport which had her biological father's name. She approached the court after her request to make the changes was declined by the RPO.

When the petition came up for hearing before the high court, Assistant Solicitor General Krishna S Dixit submitted that passport regulations have been amended and if a fresh application for passport is made complying with the requirements, the application will be considered.

Justice A S Bopanna disposed of the petition, directing Sandhya to make a fresh application and the passport authorities to consider and dispose it of in six weeks.