How to apply for an Indian passport without school leaving and birth certificates?

I want to apply for Indian passport for my parents who are more than 50 years old. (Mom born in 1963 and Dad in 1953). As per Document Adviser we had carried below documents. Education of Mom: less than 5th Std.
Education of Dad: 10th Std Proof of address:
a. Electricity Bill
b. Adhaar card
c. Election card
d. Bank statement Proof of birth:
Affidavit sworn before a magistrate or notary stating date and place of birth as per the specimen in Annex 'A' by illiterate or semi-illiterate applicants (less than 5th class). They don't have school leaving certificate nor birth certificate. How can they get the passport without these documents. Is there any work around? PS: My parents went to the passport office and the passport team asking for DOB proof other than affidavit i.e either school leaving certificate or birth certificate which they don't have. Update: The rules have been changed now, One can apply for Indian passport without DOB certificate/Leaving certificate. Since we applied before the new rules we had a tough time in getting passport for my parents. How we got it? We were lucky, My grand mom is still alive. She said my mom went to schooling till 1st std in XYZ school. That proved to be ray of light at end of the tunnel. We went to schools and asked to find my mom's details. luckily after several followups we were able to get the Leaving certificate. It took almost a month to get the LC. My dad had a leaving certificate of 2nd std, initially we didn't submit that document because it had incorrect DOB and grand father name. Later we had to submit to get the passport applicaiton processed.

asked Oct 13, 2016 at 15:20 Vinayak Dornala Vinayak Dornala 281 1 1 gold badge 2 2 silver badges 5 5 bronze badges

@pnuts: Since my parents are more than 50 year old they qualify for Non ECR category. They already been to passport office and the passport team asking for DOB proof other than Affidavit i.e either School leaving certificate or Birth certificate which they dont have

Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 12:26 Do they have the Affidavit, and that proof is being disallowed by the passport office? Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 14:30

@Dorothy Yes they have the affidavit, As per passport officials Affidavit is for uneducated people. Since my parents have education .they need to produce school leaving certificate or Birth certificate

Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 15:17

Understood. Then, perhaps this, at Quora. Go to municipal committee of the place where you were born and submit an application to issue your birth certificate. If they have the records of your birth then they'll issue the certificate, if not ask them to issue 'non-availability certificate'. [T]ake this non-availability cert to lawyer to get a court order to issue you a birth certificate from municipal committee. You'll be required to prove your DOB using Voter ID card, school TC etc.

Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 15:50 @nikhil passports don't have anything to do with travel?? Commented Dec 25, 2016 at 13:37

1 Answer 1

Although this is a bit late for you but Ministry of External Affairs has recently issued a notification announcing an amendment to proof of birth and other rules. The official release is here.

From the release (emphasis mine):

It has now been decided that all applicants of passports can submit any one of the following documents as the proof of DOB while submitting the passport application:

(i) Birth Certificate (BC) issued by the Registrar of Births & Deaths or the Municipal Corporation or any other prescribed authority whosoever has been empowered under the Registration of Birth & Deaths Act, 1969 to register the birth of a child born in India

(ii) Transfer/School leaving/Matriculation Certificate issued by the school last attended/recognized educational board containing the DOB of the applicant

(iii) PAN Card issued by the Income Tax Department with the DOB of applicant

(iv) Aadhaar Card/E-Aadhaar having the DOB of applicant

(v) Copy of the extract of the service record of the applicant (only in respect of Government servants) or the Pay Pension Order (in respect of retired Government Servants), duly attested/certified by the officer/in-charge of the Administration of the concerned Ministry/Department of the applicant, having his DOB

(vi) Driving license issued by the Transport Department of concerned State Government, having the DOB of applicant

(vii) Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) issued by the Election Commission of India having the DOB of applicant

(viii) Policy Bond issued by the Public Life Insurance Corporations/Companies having the DOB of the holder of the insurance policy

In the same press release point 3.(ii) says that Annexure A has been withdrawn. Additionally (though this does not directly affect you) all annexes now can be submitted as self declaration on plain paper (Point 3.(iii) ). Please note that ration card is no longer a valid proof of address or identity (I can't find a direct link to this but the passport homepage has this item in the ticker on top of the page.

If you still haven't lodged the application, you can submit any of the above documents (as long as they mention the date of birth of applicant) as proof of date of birth.