The Kerala High Court recently held that passport authorities cannot insist that a divorced person should produce a court decree of divorce to have their former spouse's name deleted from their passport..Justice Murali Purushothaman noted that the relevant rules do not require a divorcee who files an application to remove a former spouse's name from his/her passport to produce a divorce decree to prove that the marriage has been dissolved. In this regard, the judge referred to Schedule III to the Passport Rules, 1980, which deals with 'Documents to be attached with the application.'Thus, the Court held that passport authorities cannot use an executive instruction or an office memorandum to impose an additional documentary requirement that is not contemplated under the statutory rules."It is well settled that executive instructions or office memorandums cannot override, amend, or supersede statutory rules. When the statute does not mandate the production of proof of dissolution of marriage for deletion of the spouse's name from the passport, such proof cannot be insisted upon through an office memorandum in the nature of Annexure R2(a)," the Court held..The Court was dealing with a petition filed by a muslim woman who had filed an application with the passport authorities for the re-issuance of her passport after deleting her former husband's name.However, her application was rejected by the passport authorities on the ground that she had not produced a divorce order from a court.Notably, the petitioner and her husband had got divorced through Talaq, which is governed by personal Muslim law, in 2025. Following an agreement between the two spouses, the petitioner's former husband pronounced the Talaq to divorce her. This also meant that petitioner did have a divorce decree issued by a court to produce before the passport authorities, as demanded by them to remove her former husband's name from her passport. She, therefore, approached the Court for relief.Before, the passport authorities defended their stand by relying on a September 2024 office memorandum issued by the Ministry of External Affairs. They stated that the earlier liberalised procedure was being misused by applicants who entered the names of third persons as their spouses without their knowledge. The memorandum issued to correct this state of affairs made the production of a divorce decree mandatory for deleting a spouse's name..However, the Court pointed out that no such requirement was laid down in the passport rules to delete a spouse's name. "The statute dispenses with the requirement of producing documentary proof of marriage or dissolution of marriage, including a decree of divorce, for change of name or deletion of the spouse's name in the passport," it observed. The Court also referred to its earlier decision in Ayshath Bunayath v Union of India, in which held that passport authorities could not insist on a divorce decree when a marriage had been divorced through Mubaraat (divorce by mutual consent of Muslim spouses).The Court added that just as 'Mubaraat' is a recognised mode of divorce under Muslim personal law, so is a 'Talaq' pronounced by a husband, even if there is no documentary evidence.It proceeded to direct the Regional Passport Officer to reconsider the women's application for the removal of her ex-husband's name from her passport and take a decision on it within one month..Advocates MS Shaju Purushothaman and KS Rajesh appeared for the petitioner.Deputy Solicitor General of India OM Shalina represented the Union government and passport authorities..[Read Judgment]
