The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday decided to discontinue the last page of the passport, containing information about parents, address, Emigration Check Required (ECR) and old passport details.
In response to a query regarding the decision of the MEA not to print the last page of the passport, the official spokesperson said, "A three-member Committee comprising of the officials of the MEA and the Ministry of Women and Child Development was constituted to examine 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 relate to passport issues to children with single parent and adopted children."
"The Report of the Committee had been accepted by the Ministry. 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 last page of the passport," the spokesperson added.
The Ministry 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.
The decision was taken after the Ministry examined the recommendation of the Committee in consultation with the various stakeholders, examined the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regarding Machine Readable Travel Documents.
The last page contains information such the name of the Father, Mother, Spouse, Address, ECR and old passport number with date and place of issue of the holder of the passport.
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"As the last page of the passport would not be printed now, the passport holders with ECR status would be issued a passport with orange colour passport jacket and those with non-ECR status would continue to get a blue passport," the spokesperson said.
The Ministry also informed that the Indian Security Press (ISP), Nasik, would be designing the new passport booklets in due course.
However, till the new passport booklets are designed, manufactured and made available to the Ministry by ISP, the passports and other travel documents would continue to be printed with the last page.
"The existing passports would continue to remain valid till the date of expiry printed in the passport booklet," the spokesperson said.