Marriage certificate no longer needed to apply for passport: 'Rule has been scrapped', says Swaraj

In a move aimed at curbing the discrimination and humiliation, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that from now there would be no need to produce marriage certificate to apply for passport.

The days comes days after a Hindu-Muslim couple complained that they were harassed by a passport department official in Lucknow over marriage certificate and the name of the woman.

Swaraj also said that divorced women would no longer have to fill in the name of their ex-huband in the passport application forms.

"Married men and women complained that their marriage certificates are required at passport office, we scrapped the rule. Some divorced women complained that they are required to fill the name of ex-husband and their children of their estranged father. So we changed the rule," Swaraj said.

Earlier, a provision was introduced by which people would be able to apply for passports from any part of the country thanks to the new Passport Seva App.

According to an ANI report, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that with the Passport Seva app, now not only can you apply for a passport from any part of the country, but all the other formalities can be done based on the address provided on the app.

Swaraj, while addressing the officials of several Passport Seva Kendras and members of the Ministry of External Affairs on the occasion of Passport Seva Diwas, stated that the two new schemes - Passport application from anywhere in India and filling passport application forms from mobile phones - would now make the procedure for obtaining passports simpler, said reports.

Ahead of the passport Seva app launch, a meeting took place between Women and Child Development Ministry and the Ministry of External Affairs during which steps that needed to be taken for hassle-free issuance of passport and making the application form more citizen-friendly were discussed.

The External Affairs Ministry is also reportedly preparing a list of areas where new passport centres are to be opened.