One out of every four passport applications in Bengal is getting stuck or rejected because of an “adverse” police verification report mentioning that the person’s place of birth and residence are different.

The rule book states that the police need not verify an applicant’s place of birth except in Jammu and Kashmir, but the regional passport office in Calcutta has been receiving around 160 adverse reports daily that override this clause.

The number of adverse reports constitutes 25 per cent of the around 650 completed verifications sent by the police to the passport office every day, regional passport officer Geetika Srivastava said.

In many of these instances, the applicant’s only fault is not living in district of his or her birth. The chance of getting an adverse report is apparently greater for applicants born outside Bengal.

“Such is the extent of deviation from rules that an applicant born in Cuttack and living in Calcutta would not only have his or her place of birth verified by Odisha police but the place of residence, too. An adverse report is the most likely result,” said an official at the regional passport office.

An applicant needs to stay at least a year in his or her current address to be eligible for a passport. Once an adverse report is received, it is the passport office’s discretion to clear or reject the application.

“Generally, only the current address of the applicant is verified. It is not compulsory to verify the place of birth unless the police find something suspicious about the applicant. The police should use their discretion,” chief passport officer Muktesh Pardeshi told Metro.

The maximum adverse reports come from Hooghly police. Many applicants never receive a communication about their reports.

“The cop who came for my verification said the process would take some time as I was born in another district. After three weeks, I contacted him and was told that the verification process was over. I kept waiting for my passport but it didn’t come,” recalled Sucheta Roy, a homemaker born in Birbhum and living in Hooghly for 20 years.

Anindita Biswas from Mukundapur was told by an officer at East Jadavpur police station that her verification would need to be done by the police at her birthplace Jhamtara in Jharkhand.