BENGALURU: A PhD holder from Mysuru was unsuccessful in changing his name with the addition of a prefix ‘Doctor’ in his passport, as the Karnataka High Court dismissed his petition, saying that no honorifics, titles such as Major, Doctor, etc., should be written as part of surname in the passport.
The petitioner, Dr B Ramachary, is a 44-year-old from Muneshwara Nagar in Mysuru. Upholding the contentions of the Regional Passport Officer, Justice B V Nagarathna dismissed the petition of Ramachary. The court, however, has given Ramachary the liberty to apply for a fresh passport.
According to the order, Ramachary had obtained his Ph D degree (Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology) from University of Mysuru. Subsequently, he changed his name from ‘Ramachary Bhadrachar’ to ‘Dr Bhadrachar Ramachary’ in an affidavit dated July 16, 2015.
Thereafter, he sought to change his name in his election identity card. In his Aadhaar Card, his name has been mentioned as ‘Dr Bhadrachar Ramachary’. This was mentioned even in his driving licence. Therefore, he had made an application to the Regional Passport Officer stating that his name be changed from ‘Bhadrachar Ramachary’, as noted in his passport to ‘Ramachary Doctor Bhadrachar’.The Regional Passport Officer, however, issued a communication dated August 31, 2015 declining his request.
Therefore, he moved the court.
While upholding the contentions of the Union Ministry of External Affairs, the court said that the Election Commission of India, UIDAI (Aadhaar),Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) may have incorporated the expression ‘Doctor’ as a prefix to the petitioner’s name, but the same cannot be replicated in his passport as the inclusion of such a prefix is not permissible by Passport Rules, 1980.
In this regard, the court referred to Schedule III of the Passport Rules which state that, “No honorifics, titles such as Major, Doctor, etc., should be written in the passport as part of the surname.”“That is exactly what the petitioner is seeking in this case. The petitioner wants the expression ‘Doctor’ to be included as a surname, which is impermissible in terms of the said rules. In these circumstances, Regional Passport Officer was justified in rejecting the petitioner’s request. Hence, there is no merit in the writ
petition. Accordingly, the petition is dismissed. However, liberty is reserved to the petitioner to make a fresh application for re-issuance of a passport,” the court said.
Fresh passport
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that petitioner has already surrendered his passport. If he applies for a fresh passport, the same shall be considered expeditiously and the petitioner shall be issued a fresh passport showing his as ‘Bhadrachar Ramachary’. It is clarified that despite the dismissal of this writ petition, such liberty is reserved to the petitioner, the court said