ANAND TEWARI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in W.P(C) No.3885/2013 holds a passport bearing number Z2038840 which came to be seized by the CBI in connection with a criminal case registered vide RC No.BD1/2012/E/0001-BS&FC. Vide show cause notice dated 14.3.2012, the Regional Passport Officer (RPO) called upon the petitioner to show cause as to why his passport be not impounded under Section 10(3)(e) of the Passport Act, 1967. The petitioner responded to the said notice on 26.3.2012. Vide notice dated 5.9.2012, which the petitioner claims to have received on 10.1.2013, he was asked with reference to some adverse police verification report, to furnish a proper explanation regarding the circumstances in which he had suppressed the material information in his passport application. He was also asked to show cause why action be not taken to impound his passport under section 10(3)(b) and 12(1)(b) of the Passport Act, 1967. The petitioner responded to the said notice on 14.1.2013, stating therein that the letter being responded by him was received only on 10.1.2013.

(2.) The petitioner submitted an application to the Special Judge CBI seeking temporary release of his passport on the ground that he required the same for renewal of the passport of his minor son. In its reply to the said application, the CBI stated that it had been informed by the RPO that the said passport has been impounded by it on 14.9.2012. Vide letter dated 7.5.2013, the petitioner requested the RPO to provide him the decision/ order to impound the passport, alongwith the communications exchanged in this regard. The Office of RPO, vide letter dated 17.5.2013, informed the petitioner that his passport was impounded on 14.9.2012, on account of adverse recommendations of CBI in connection with a criminal case registered vide RC No.BD1/2012/E/0001-BS&FC. Being aggrieved from impounding of his passport, the petitioner is before this Court seeking quashing of the order dated 14.9.2012 and release of the passport to him.

(3.) In their reply affidavit, the respondents have stated that the passport of the petitioner was impounded on 14.9.2012 under Section 10(3)(c)&(e) of the Passport Act, 1967, pursuant to the advice of CBI. It is further stated in the affidavit that impounding of the passport was necessitated on account of the petitioner being involved in a criminal case of financial fraud and as many as four FIRs involving hundred crores of rupees had been registered against him. It is further stated that pursuant to the letter dated 14.2.2012 received from CBI, a show cause notice dated 14.3.2012 (wrongly typed as "14.3.2013") was issued to the petitioner and the grounds for impounding the passport were conveyed to him vide letter dated 17.5.2013.