SAURAV KALIA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition, the petitioner seeks quashing of FIR no.268 dated 02.09.2016, registered at Police Station Navi Baradari, District Jalandhar City, alleging therein the commission of an offence punishable under Section 12 (1) (b) of The Passports Act, 1967 (hereinafter to be referred to as the Act). He also seeks quashing of the subsequent proceedings arising from the report submitted to the Magistrate under Section 173 of the Cr.P.C., on 24.07.2017, as also the order passed by the learned Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Jalandhar, dated 26.02.2019 (copy Annexure P-5). The allegation in the FIR (copy Annexure P-1), registered at the instance of respondent no.2 herein, is that the petitioners' passport, bearing no.3101293, had been got issued by concealing facts from the Regional Passport Authority, Chandigarh.

(2.) As regards the main allegation in the FIR in question presently, it is stated that the petitioner had applied for a passport by furnishing false information and had been granted such passport on 07.09.2015, valid upto 06.09.2025, and had in fact visited foreign countries many a time on the strength of that passport, the concealment in his application form being that he had not disclosed that he was married to the complainant, and had deliberately not added her name in the application, thereby showing himself to be a bachelor.

(3.) Upon the matter having been investigated by the police, a report under Section 173 of the Cr.P.C. came to be filed before the competent court, stating therein that as per written information received from the office of the Regional Passport Office, Jalandhar, the passport presently held by the petitioner was issued from that office, "against his old passport no.F-7522329 dated 09.05.2006".