P.RAJU @ RAJU PUTHENVEEDU Vs. REGIONAL PASSPORT OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, who claims to have obtained a Visa to participate in an overseas conference, scheduled at Damascus, Syria on the 8th and 9th September, 2019, has filed this writ petition apprehending that his passport will be impounded by the respondents.

(2.) According to the petitioner, when he made an application for his passport on 24.07.2019, no criminal case was, to his knowledge, pending against him, and that therefore, he had no occasion to disclose any such in the application. He says that, however, subsequently, he came to be aware that a crime was registered against him, at the instance of certain police officers, on 23.07.2019 and that on account of this, he apprehends that when he attempts to travel abroad, he will be interdicted and his passport impounded. He, therefore, prays in this writ petition that the respondents be directed to allow him to travel overseas without impounding his passport.

(3.) The Assistant Solicitor General today informs me that apart from the crime that the petitioner is referring to in this writ petition, he was implicated in another crime but that he had compounded the same on 05.08.2019. As regards the present crime, namely Crime No.1580/2019 of the Central Police Station, Ernakulam, he says that whether the petitioner was aware of the registration of the FIR at the time when he made the application for passport is something that he will have to establish in answer to the notice that has already been issued to him, a copy of which has been placed on record as Ext.P5. He says that if the petitioner presents himself before the first respondent a decision thereon can be taken without any delay.