- (1.) In the instant application being CAN No. 6125 of 2000 arising out of W. P. No. 22000(W) of 2000 the writ petitioner Malay Kumar Ghoshal, Kumar of Sundarban has prayed for compliance of the order dated 6th September, 2001 passed by Hon'ble Justice M. H. S. Ansari in W. P. No. 22000 (W) of 2000. It is contended that on 30th December, 1998 the writ petitioner filed an application for grant of a new passport since the passport granted to him earlier was going to expire soon. Though the writ petitioner supplied four copies of photographs exactly as required/ instructed by the respondent No. 1 he was asked to supply two additional photographs. On 22nd June, 2000 the petitioner had been to the office of the respondent No. 1 and again handed over two copies of the photographs as demanded. But the respondent No. 1 did not deliver his passport for which he was compelled to file a writ petition being W. P. No. 22000(W) of 2000. In the said writ petition it was contended by the respondents that four passport size photographs were required for issuing the passport. In such view of the matter the Hon'ble Court on 06.09.2001 disposed of the said writ petition with the following directions: 'if the petitioner complies with the requirement, as above, the respondent authorities shall dispose of the matter with regard to grant of passport expeditiously.' In pursuance of such order the respondent No. 2 by letter dated 16th November, 2001 asked for four copies of recent photographs of the writ petitioner without uniform. Ultimately the respondents granted passport being No. F6045590 dated 24.01.2006 and sent it to the petitioner by registered post. On receipt of such passport the writ petitioner found that the same was issued on his photograph contrary to the order of the Hon'ble High Court and the commitment made my Mr. M. M. Mukherjee, the Departmental Superintendent. It is also found by the writ petitioner that in one place his name has been mistyped as 'KUMA' in place of 'KUMAR'. This error and deviation from the order of this Hon'ble Court was brought to the notice of the passport officer by registered letter dated 30.06.2006 but to no effect. Therefore, the instant application has been filed with a prayer to direct the respondent to take back the passport and to redeliver it after affixing the original photograph sent with the application for passport or with the copy of the photographs sent as per directions of the respondents by their letter dated 11th November, 1999 and to correct the name of the petitioner in every place of the passport by correctly writing the word 'KUMAR' or 'KR' in place of 'KUMA' as wrongly written in the passport. Since the matter was pending for a long time, in another application being C. A. N. 5773 of 2009 the writ petitioner has asked for expeditious hearing of this application and, therefore, both these applications are now taken up for consideration.
(2.) The respondents, however, has denied the allegation and claimed that the passport has been rightly issued in accordance with relevant rules and so far as the error in writing 'KUMA' in place of 'KUMAR' is concerned, it is contended that the same is the outcome of computerised printout which failed to incorporate all the words for want of adequate space in the prescribed format.
(3.) From the submissions made by the Learned Counsel for both the parties it appears to me that the prayer for correction of the 'KUMAR' in place of 'KUMA' either by writing the entire word 'KUMAR' or abbreviation thereof as 'KR' is feasible and should be conceded to.;