HC quashes case against French citizens for getting Indian passport

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has quashed a criminal case booked against a sibling on charges of obtaining and renewing the Indian passport by suppressing their French citizenship.

Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan passed the orders on allowing the criminal original petitions filed by Devipriya Vassoudevane and Jagapriyan, both siblings. The petitioners sought to quash the case pending before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai.

The judge quashed the case booked by Fake Passport Team, CCB on the ground that the petitioners were minors when their mother obtained French citizenship for them in 1989 and they were unaware of having French citizenship.

“It is clear that they (petitioners) had no knowledge about their certificate of French nationality issued in the year 1989. Therefore, an offense under Section 12 (1-A) (a) of the Passports Act would not attract the petitioners, since they had no knowledge about their French nationality,” the judge held.

The court further ruled that there is no question of suppression of any information about their nationality and the impugned proceedings cannot be sustained as against the petitioners, which are liable to be quashed.

According to the petitioners, they were born to a mother – a French citizen and to an Indian father. While they were born and brought up in India with their father, their mother got their French citizenship certificate to them through a court order in Paris in 1989- at the time both the siblings were below 15.

Therefore, they applied for Indian passports in 2005 and 2007 and renewed the same. When they came to know that they have had French citizenship since 1989, the petitioners applied for French passports and obtained them in 2019. Subsequently, when they surrendered their Indian passport, the case was booked against them for suppressing their French citizenship.