Till now passport served as both Id and address proof but as the external affairs ministry has decided not to print the last page of the passport that features the residential address of the holder, it shall henceforth not be accepted as a valid address proof.

The last page of the travel document includes passport holder's father or legal guardian's name in addition to mother's name and their address.

The external affairs ministry said, "As the last page of the passport would not be printed now, the passport holders with ECR (Emigration Check Required) status would be issued a passport with orange passport jacket and those with non-ECR status would continue to get a blue passport".

The decision has been taken after the three-member panel with officials from the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of External Affairs has recommended doing away with the printing of the last page of the passport.

Meanwhile, the Indian Security Press based out of Nasik would begin with the designing of new passbook booklet.

The MEA statement further clarified that all existing passports will remain valid till the expiry date mentioned on them.

With Inputs From PTI