Dokument #1252360
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
Information on whether birth certificates
were issued in 1968 could not be found among the sources consulted
by the DIRB.
In a 28 August 1995 telephone interview, a
staff member of the visa section of the High Commission for the
Republic of India in Ottawa stated that a driver's licence, the
ration card and a valid Indian passport serve as identity cards in
India and are routinely issued to Indian citizens. According to
Country Profile: India, which is published by the Refugees,
Immigration and Asylum Section (RIAS) of the Australian Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade, "Indians are issued with a ration
card, which can also serve as an identity card" (June 1994, 4).
Pages 3 and 4 of this publication also provide some information on
the procedure to obtain a passport in India. However, according to
Country Reports,
under the Passports Act of 1967, the
Government may deny a passport to any applicant who "may or is
likely to engage outside India in activities prejudicial to the
sovereignty and integrity of India." The Government uses this
provision to prohibit the foreign travel of some government
critics... (1995, 1228).
Please consult Response to Information
Request IND21738.E of 29 August 1995, available at Regional
Documentation Centres, for copies of application forms for a new
passport from an Indian mission, a passport renewal, and an form
for "miscellaneous services of all types of passports and travel
documents," which were obtained from the Indian High Commission in
Ottawa. According to the staff member of the visa section of the
Indian High Commission, this letter form is also used by an Indian
national wishing to obtain an Indian birth certificate 28 Aug.
1995). The applicant must present the High Commission with his/her
Indian passport, even if it has expired, in order to receive a
birth certificate using this particular form (ibid.).
The following Responses to Information
Requests all provide information on passports: IND18920.E of 9
November 1994, on the minimum age at which one can hold one's own
passport; IND16713.E of 1 March 1994, which mentions briefly the
procedures to replace a passport; IND16081.E of 20 December 1993 on
the procedure to renew a passport at the High Commission for the
Republic of India in Ottawa; IND13801.E of 5 April 1993, on the
validity period of a passport, and IND9867 of 6 January 1992, on
the procedure to obtain a passport in India. All these Responses
are available at Regional Documentation Centres.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of
additional sources consulted in researching this Information
Request.
Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 1994. 1995. United States Department of State.
Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.
High Commission for the Republic of
India, Ottawa. 29 August 1995. Telephone and personal interviews
with staff member of the visa section.
Refugees, Immigration and Asylum Section
(RIAS), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. June
1994. Country Profile: India. Parkes, ACT: Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Refugees, Immigration and Asylum Section
(RIAS), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. June
1994. Country Profile: India. Parkes, ACT: Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade, pp. 3-4.
Office of Asylum Affairs (OAA), Bureau
of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, United States. December 1994.
India: Comments on Country Conditions and Asylum Claims.
On-line search of media sources.
Oral sources.