HARPAL SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India for issuance of a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ for quashing the impugned order dtd. 28/10/2019 (Annexure P-14) passed by respondent No.2-Joint Secretary (PSP) and Chief Passport Officer, New Delhi vide which respondent No.2 denied to adjudicate the appeal of the petitioner which was filed by him challenging the impounding of his passport with a further prayer seeking direction to respondent No.3-Regional Passport Officer, Chandigarh to release the passport of the petitioner which was seized on 1/12/2017 vide Seizure Memo (Annexure P-5) and was sent to the Regional Passport Officer, Chandigarh or to issue a fresh passport.

(2.) The brief facts of the present case are that the petitioner was holding a valid passport and vide Annexure P-1 dtd. 10/10/2017, he was issued Show Cause Notice by respondent No.3-Regional Passport Authority, Chandigarh seeking clarifications regarding issuance of passport facilities to him. By way of the aforesaid Show Cause Notice, he was called upon to provide a suitable explanation and submit a fresh application with correct details regarding the circumstances under which he had suppressed the material information in his Passport Application and obtained the aforesaid passport. The said Show Cause Notice was issued due to the reason that in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of India and also friendly relations of India with any foreign country and also to state as to why action should not be taken to impound the passport No.N6507248 dtd. 7/1/2016, under Sec. 10(3)(c) "In the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India and also the security of India" the contents of the aforesaid Show Cause Notice vide Annexure P-1 are reproduced as under:-

(3.) Thereafter, as per the learned counsel for the petitioner, the petitioner being an Officer of the Court/Advocate at District Court, Fatehgarh Sahib and also a Human Rights Activist, was to attend a conference at Bangkok, Thailand which was to be conducted by the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the responsibility to protect along with other International Organizations and the invitation was issued to the petitioner by the United Nations Organization dtd. 1/11/2017 vide Annexure P-4. The said invitation was extended to the petitioner by Under-Secretary-General, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Prevention of Genocide. Thereafter, the petitioner, who was holding a valid passport went to Bangkok on 27th/28/11/2017 and returned on 1/12/2017, since the conference was scheduled to be held on 29th/30/11/2017. However, when he came back to India, his passport was confiscated by the Airport Authorities on the basis of information supplied by the Passport Authorities. A document in that respect is attached with the present petition as Annexure P-5 which shows that it has been seized on the ground that 'Drils Status Impounded' and further noted that passport seized and sent to the issuing authority concerned i.e. R.P.O., Chandigarh. A seal of Immigration India is also placed on the aforesaid document dtd. 1/12/2017 (Annexure P-5) which shows that the petitioner has arrived.