Passport renewal case: HC clean chit to ADGP Davidson

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday gave a clean chit to former Commissioner of Police, Madurai City, S Davidson Devasirvatham and also complimented the BJP State President K Annamalai over passport renewal.

A petition filed by Sureshkumar seeking to renew his passport came up for hearing before Justice GR Swaminathan. The petitioner had earlier approached the Regional Passport Officer, Madurai, for renewal of his passport by submitting an application on April 19. During verification the police said a criminal case was pending against one Nazirudheen and that the petitioner’s passport was seized in that connection.

Meanwhile, the Government Advocate submitted that the petitioner did not come under adverse notice. Nazirudheen figured as an accused in a case registered by the Q Branch CID Police, Madurai. The judge further said, “At that point, S Davidson Devasirvatham was the Commissioner of Police, Madurai City. Had the final report been filed before the PIL in 2021; had the time limit laid down by the Division Bench been adhered to ; had the sanctioning authorities accorded sanction without delay, the present controversy would not have arisen. Hence, I give a clean chit to Devasirvatham and also compliment Annamalai for having taken up the cause. He played the role of a watchdog in a democracy,” the judge said. Citing these, the court ordered renewal of passport.