The Delhi High Court recently comprising of a bench of Justice Pratibha M. Singh observed that Passport cannot stand revoked on account of administration fallacies. The Passport issued to the Indians residing abroad cannot be revoked until notice has been served and the individual has been afforded a hearing. (Akshay Vinod Kulkarni v Chief Passport Officer)
Facts of the Case
The Petitioner was an Indian passport holder having, which was issued by the Consulate General of India, Houston, U.S.A. The Petitioner is working as a Senior Implementation Manager in a company in the health sector. The Petitioner and his wife had various matrimonial disputes. From the facts narrated hereinafter, it appears that it is during the matrimonial proceedings that the Petitioner was informed that his passport has been suspended by the Indian Consulate in Houston, U.S.A, pursuant to a complaint filed by his wife. The said information was learned by the Petitioner sometime in September, 2019, though the suspension of the passport is alleged to have taken place on 17th September, 2018.
The crux of the dispute in this case, as per the petitioner was that prior to the suspension of the passport of the Petitioner, no notice was given to the Petitioner. Moreover, he was also not afforded a hearing. While his wife continued to live in the USA, merely because of her complaint, his passport could not have been suspended – that too without notice to him and without hearing him.
Contention of the Parties
It was submitted that the order of suspension has been passed under Section 10A of The Passports Act, 1967 (hereinafter, “Act”) and thereafter, the proceedings were commenced and an email was written to the Petitioner. However, none of these facts are on record either on affidavits or through documents.
Courts Observation & Judgment
In the opinion of the court, the shocking part of the present case was that despite long drawn correspondence the Respondents had not served the passport suspension order or the denial order to the Petitioner. He was shuttled between the RPO-Kozhikode who informed him that it was the Indian Mission in Houston which revoked his passport. The passport of the petitioner has been suspended on the basis of a complaint by the wife due to matrimonial disputes for more than two and half years.
The bench noted that the correspondence on record reveals that the Petitioner has repeatedly approached various authorities seeking revival of his passport as also for a copy of the denial order but in vain. Even before this court, the Respondents have not filed any affidavit or document on record to date, despite having more than five months to do so.
The Court thus noted, “The Petitioner cannot be made to live without a passport indefinitely. This Court has given adequate time to the Respondents to file an affidavit/documents on record, however, not a single shred of paper has been placed on record. On merits, whether the suspension/revocation was justified or not would be the subject matter of final adjudication. However, the Petitioner cannot be made to suffer further especially due to the pandemic that is currently raging which may require him to travel to India to meet his mother who is in India, owing to her age etc.”
The bench remarked, “The Passport Office shall communicate the order passed today to all the relevant authorities so that the order suspending the Petitioner’s passport does not act as an impediment to the Petitioner traveling on the new passport. Further, the travel of the Petitioner shall be subject to any international restrictions relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the issuance of the passport shall not, in any manner, be delayed due to the Covid-19 travel restrictions.”
Read Judgment;
SOURCE ; /www.latestlaws.com
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