Union External Affairs Ministry has made it absolutely clear that Indian passports issued to its citizens can no more be used as address proofs by the passport holders.  Going a step further, it said that passports to be issued in future won't have a separate page dedicated to fill up the passport holders’ address.

The latest decision has been communicated via a communiqué issued by the Ministry in the national capital yesterday.  The decision has been taken after large-scale complaints of misuse of this ‘address proof’ to indulge in many anti-social and anti-legal activities.  Passports bear the name of the holder, his parents’ name and the address of residence in the penultimate page.

As many fraudulent activities have taken place in the past using passport addresses, the Ministry has taken a decision not to entertain passport address as 'proof of residence', based on a recommendation made by a 3-member committee.

Henceforth, the passports to be issued won’t have any last page containing the address of the passport holder, it has been communicated.  The Govt. of India Press in Nasik, Maharashtra has been entrusted with the responsibility/assignment of printing a new set of passports.