Ravi Pandey v. Union of India and 3 Others

Court No. - 32 Case :- WRIT - C No. - 37248 of 2023 Petitioner :- Ravi Pandey Respondent :- Union Of India And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Ashish Kumar Pandey Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I. Hon'ble Salil Kumar Rai,J. Hon'ble Surendra Singh-I,J.

¶1List of fresh cases has been revised.

¶2No one appears for the Union of India or the Passport Officer impleaded as respondent no.2 in the present petition.

¶3The grievance of the petitioner in the present petition is that petitioner is not being issued a passport due to pendency of the criminal case registered as Case Crime No. 0208 of 2021, under Sections-34, 452,323,427, 506 IPC, Police Station-Phoolpur, District-Azamgarh, in which charge-sheet has been submitted by the concerned Investigating Officer.

¶4Prima facie, there is no illegality in the act of the passport department in not issuing the passport of the petitioner under clause (f) of sub-section (2) of Section 6 of the Passports Act, 1967. However, in light of the Office Memorandum dated

10.10.2019, the GSR 570(E) dated 25.8.1993 exempts citizens of India against whom proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by them are pending before the criminal court in India if they produce orders from the court concerned permitting them to depart from India, from operation of the provisions of Section 6 (2)(f) of the 1967 Act. Clause 5 (i) of the Office Memorandum dated 10.10.2019 clearly provides that the provisions of GSR 570 (E) may be strictly applied in all cases, which also clarifies that GSR 570 (E) is a statutory notification and hence it forms part of the Rules.

¶5In view of the aforesaid, denying the petitioner passport only on account of pendency of the aforesaid criminal case does not appear to be equitable. However in terms of the provisions contained in the Office Memorandum issued by the Government of India in the Ministry of External Affairs, dated 10.10.2019 and 25.08.1993, the petitioner will have to seek an order from the concerned court.

¶6Accordingly, the appropriate course which legally is available to the petitioner is to approach the court concerned and seek an order permitting the petitioner to depart from India.

¶7In light of the aforesaid, the petition is disposed of permitting the petitioner to approach the competent Criminal Court to seek permission. In case any such application is moved within two weeks from today, the same would be considered and decided by the court concerned, thereafter, the petitioner would be at liberty to press the application for issuing passport before the Passport Authority, which would also be addressed expeditiously in accordance with law. Order Date :- 30.10.2023 Akbar High Court of Judicature at Allahabad