NIRU KUMARI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition is filed by the Petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying inter alia for quashing of FIR No. 63/2010 lodged by an officer at the Immigration Department, IGI Airport against the Petitioner, under Section 419/420 IPC read with Section 12 of the Passport Act, 1967 (in short 'the Act').

(2.) In a nutshell, the facts of the case are that on 5.2.2010, a complaintwas received from the IGI Airport alleging that the page No. 21 of the passport ofthe Petitioner, who arrived at the airport for taking immigration clearance to flyto Zurich, was found to be damaged. On the aforesaid complaint, the FIR inquestion came to be registered with PS IGI Airport. Thereafter, investigationswere carried out. In the investigation, the Petitioner disclosed that she had gota visa for travelling to Zurich and after getting the same, she had noticed thatone of the pages of the passport was damaged, but did not bother much about it. Thereafter, she came to IGI Airport for flying to Zurich to join her husband, Mr. Manish Kumar Tiwari, who has presently gone there to complete his post-doctoratestudies. At the airport, the Petitioner was arrested on account of the purportedtampering of her passport, and produced before the court of the learnedMetropolitan Magistrate, where she was released on bail.

(3.) Counsel for the Petitioner states that the FIR lodged by the Respondent is liable to be quashed as the present case is not covered under Section 12 of the Act. He relies on the judgment in the case of Balwinder Singh v. State, Crl.M.C.3630/2006, decided on 9.10.2006.