No more police station visits for getting passport
Updated: Nov 22nd, 2023
In a relief to the new passport applicants in Gujarat, a circular has been issued on Nov 21 stating that applicants will no longer need to visit the police stations for verifications.
The circular, signed by the director general of police (law and order), Samsher Singh, directed police stations to refrain from summoning applicants for verification.
The directive
For the verification of passport applicants, their citizenship as well as criminal history will be checked, according to the circular.
The police are also not required to visit applicants to verify their addresses, and they are also not required to meet applicants in person to get their signatures on the documents.
Additionally, the circular directed the police to visit the applicant’s residence only if necessary for further verification of the passport.
This change is an effort to reduce the time required for passport applications.
The decision was also reportedly prompted by concerns about a high rate of passport rejections due to the absence of applicants at home during verification visits.
Police verification for passport
According to the Indian government’s ‘Passport Seva’ website, police verification is important to ensure that the passport does not go to the wrong hands, and the process helps ascertain details furnished by the applicant, such as the name and address of the applicant.
When an applicant applies for the passport, in most cases, a pre-police verification is required, denoting the police verification done before the passport is issued.
Before the circular, the applicants had to visit the police station assigned to the residence of the applicant for the verification process.
