MARUPUDI DHANA KOTESWARA RAO Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner prays for a writ of mandamus declaring the action of respondents 1 to 5 in refusing to renew his passport bearing No.K1839017 which was issued on 23/2/2012 and expired on 22/2/2022 as illegal, unjust and violative of Article 21 of the Constitution and for a consequential direction to the respondents to renew his passport.

(2.) The petitioner's case succinctly is thus:

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner Sri G.V.R Choudary would submit that what is required by the petitioner is the renewal of the passport and therefore the passport authorities shall, while considering the application for renewal, scrupulously act within the parameters of the Passport Act, 1967 either in granting or refusing renewal. Without issuing any written order, it was orally informed to the petitioner that because he was involved in two criminal cases which are pending for trial, his renewal was rejected. He would submit that application for renewal of the passport has to be made in Form EA(P)-2 prescribed under the Schedule III of the Passport Act and as per the Clause-5 of the said Form, the passport authority can only seek for information as to any criminal proceedings pending against applicant in criminal court in India or any other disqualifications under Sec. 10(3) of the passport Act. Learned counsel would submit that the said clause did not specifically mention that if criminal cases pending against the applicant, the authorities can refuse the renewal. In this regard, he relied upon a decision in Ashok Khanna V. Central Bureau of Investigation,265(2019)DLT614 = case. He thus prayed to allow the writ petition. While thus prayed to allow the writ petition, the learned counsel would request that a direction may be issued to passport authorities to renew his passport and if any condition is imposed on the petitioner to appear before the Criminal Courts and execute bonds for his due return to the Country and appear in the concerned criminal cases, he will abide.