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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Passport may no longer serve as address proof
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Passport may no longer serve as address proof

The ministry of external affairs will soon issue new passports without the last page that contains details including the residential address of the holder

The ministry of external affairs will issue those people requiring emigration checks orange colour passports. Photo: iStockphotoPremium
The ministry of external affairs will issue those people requiring emigration checks orange colour passports. Photo: iStockphoto

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 Times on 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.

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Published: 12 Jan 2018, 08:34 PM IST
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