Court Cuts Man’s Age by One Year

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

A Bahraini man has won a court case to cut a year from the age shown on his passport and ID card after a birth certificate proved state records had made him 58 instead of 57.

The High Administrative Court ordered the Information and eGovernment Authority and the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence to change his date of birth from July 17, 1967, to July 17, 1968.

The change must be entered in their records and new identity papers issued.

Lawyer Abduladheem Hubail said the man took the case to court after both bodies refused to alter the date without a ruling.

The man told the court he was born on July 17, 1968, as shown on his birth certificate, which was filed with the case.

The court said the certificate had been issued by the Manama Maternity Hospital on the same date and had not been challenged.

It said the age recorded on a passport or identity card could not be changed unless there was a birth certificate or another paper from the proper body.

The court also took note of a memo from the Information and eGovernment Authority and a report from the Names and Titles Committee, both of which found the date on the birth certificate to be correct.

It found the claim sound in fact and law, and ordered the two bodies, each within its remit, to amend the man’s papers and records.