Rajan @ Rajan Kumar v. Union of India Thru. Secy. Ministry External Affiairs Patiyala Haous and 3 Others

Court No. - 3 Case :- WRIT - C No. - 11137 of 2023 Petitioner :- Rajan @ Rajan Kumar Respondent :- Union Of India Thru. Secy. Ministry External Affiairs Patiyala Haous And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Mahendra Pratap Singh Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,C.S.C. Hon'ble Vivek Chaudhary,J. Hon'ble Manish Kumar,J. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri S.B. Pandey, Senior Advocate and DSGI assisted by Sri Varun Pandey for the opposite parties. Present writ petition has been filed seeking direction to the respondents to issue the passport in favour of petitioner for the purpose of change of name as in the previous passport name of petitioner has wrongly been mentioned. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the application for reissuance of passport has not been dealt with by the competent authority. The petitioner in his writ petition has clearly disclosed in paragraph nos. 8 and 10 that an FIR was registered against the petitioner and a charge sheet under Sections 323,504,506,452 I.P.C. has also been filed against the petitioner. The Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs has issued guidelines, according to which in a situation where criminal cases are pending against a person, on applying for issuing a passport/renewal of passport, the matter is regulated under Notification dated 25th August, 1993, which, for ready reference, has been reproduced in a judgment rendered by this Court in Misc. Bench No.31723 of 2018. Learned counsel for the petitioner has also placed reliance on a judgment rendered by Delhi High Court in Criminal Appeal No.686/2018 (Ashok Khanna Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation) decided on

07.11.2019, MANU/DE/3767/2019 and reliance has also been placed upon a judgment/order passed by Hon'ble Apex Court in Criminal Appeal Nos. 1342/2017 (Vangala Kasturi Rangacharyulu Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation), MANU/SCOR/34388/2021, decided on 27.09.2021. On a careful reading of the notification, it is gathered that it is the competent court where the criminal case is pending that the petitioner may make an appropriate application for issuance/renewal of the passport before the court concerned seeking directions to the competent authority for issuing/renewal of passport during pendency of the criminal cases. In case any such application is filed, it is expected that the competent court shall pass necessary orders expeditiously, preferably within a period of two months from the date of its filing, after putting the parties to notice. With the above observation, the writ petition is disposed of. (Manish Kumar, J.) (Vivek Chaudhary, J.) Order Date :- 19.12.2023 Arjun/- High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench