Pendency of criminal case is not bar for passport issuance, HC rules

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court held that the pendency of a criminal case at the stage of FIR is not a bar for authorities to issue a passport to the concerned person who is facing the case.

Justice GR Swaminathan passed the direction on disposing of a petition preferred by Shaik Abdullah, a Nagapattinam resident.

The petitioner sought a direction to the regional passport office, Trichy to reissue a passport based on his application dated September 28, 2021. The petitioner submitted that the authorities denied the issuance of his passport which he had missed. The petitioner claimed that he is doing business in Malaysia. When he approached the passport authorities in the Indian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, they rejected his application on the ground that criminal cases are pending against him.

“The pendency of the criminal case at the FIR stage is not a bar for issuance of the passport. It is true that if it has culminated in the filing of the final report, the permission of the court for the issuance of a passport will have to be obtained, but this requirement is applicable only if the petitioner wants to leave India. It cannot apply when the petitioner wants to come back to India, ” Justice Swaminathan held.

The judge directed the authorities to issue the passport to the petitioner within 15 days.

“On such re-issuance/renewal, the petitioner shall come over to India and take immediate steps to participate in the criminal proceedings and work out his remedy and defend himself in the case, ” the court noted.

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