Marriage Certificate Not Required to Issue Passport: Sushma Swaraj

She also did away with divorcees having to name their ex-husband during the application process

‘Marriage certificate will no longer be necessary to issue Indian passports’, clarifies Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj

(Photo: PTI)

Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam

On 26 June, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during her speech on ‘Passport Divas’ in Delhi, announced that marriage certificates will no longer be necessary for applying for passports.

Some married men and women had issue as their marriage certificates were asked to be presented. There is no need for a marriage certificate for passport application. So we did away with that rule. 

Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister

She also added that divorcees do not have to mention the name of their ex-spouses when applying for the passport.

She claimed that several women have reached out to her saying that it is traumatising not just for them, but also for their children, when they have to name their ex-husbands during the passport application process.

Many divorcees approached me and told me that the passport officials have asked for their ex-husband’s name. Our kids are traumatised when such questions are asked. So we decided that no divorcee will be asked to produce a decree or the name of their ex-husband. 

Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs

This announcement comes shortly after Swaraj was a target of a plethora of online abuses over the way she handled a complaint filed by an interfaith couple allegedly harrassed by a passport official.

Tanvi Seth had complained that she was unnecessarily harassed by a passport officer, Vikas Mishra who questioned her after the name mentioned on the application form didn’t match the one on her ‘nikahnama’, the Islamic marriage contract document.