The Delhi High Court
on Friday issued notice to the Union government on a writ petition filed by advocate
Prashant Bhushan challenging the government`s refusal to reissue him a passport
with full validity of 10 years on the ground that criminal cases are pending
against him.
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| Prashant Bhushan has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the act of the Union Govt in reissuing his passport for a limited period of 1 year instead of reissuing it with a full validity of 10 years |
Justice Rajiv Shakdher sought the response of the Ministry of External Affairs
and the Regional Passport Office, Ghaziabad, while posting the matter for March
16.
Advocate Pranav
Sachdeva, appearing for Mr. Prashant Bhushan, contended that merely because
a criminal case pertaining to being part of an unlawful assembly is pending
against him, the government denied him a passport with full validity.
Bhushan, also a
founding member of India Against Corruption (IAC), had staged a protest in
August 2012 against the coal scam. Though the protest was non-violent, the police
had registered a few cases under section 144 of the CrPC for participating in
an assembly which was declared unlawful, against the members of the IAC,
including Bhushan. The cases are pending in Patiala House court, the petition
said.
Hearing the petition
Justice Shakdher remarked: "If
someone holds a valid passport but against him some minor traffic violation
case is filed, then can you stop subsequent reissue of his passport."
The court also noted
that "only if a court impounds the
passport or put restrictions on foreign travel, then only passport validity can
be restricted".
According to Mr. Bhushan, he
had submitted his application for renewal/reissue of the passport
to the regional passport office on June 26, 2014 and on the same day, as per
procedure, his old passport was cancelled. The government had informed him that
in order to get his passport renewed, he needs to first obtain a no objection
certificate (NOC) from the concerned court where criminal cases are pending
against him.
On September 2, 2014
he moved an application before the Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) at Patiala
House Courts here seeking a NOC for the reissue of his passport, which was
granted to him. However, the NOC did not specify the duration of validity of
the passport.
On September 15,
2014 the government reissued the passport of Mr. Bhushan for a period of only
one year instead of the full validity period of 10 years.
The counsel for Mr.
Bhushan argued that the one-year restriction on reissuing the passport is
"arbitrary, unreasonable and also discriminatory" and thus in
violation of article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution.
Additional Solicitor
General (ASG) Sanjay Jain appearing for the Centre cited an Aug 25, 1993
notification, saying "Bhushan`s request for re-issue of passport for full
validity cannot be acceded to unless the court concerned issues a fresh order
in this regard".
The ASG argued that
as per the notification a person (having a criminal case pending) who applies
for issue or reissue of passport to first obtain a NOC from the court where the
case is pending and that if the court does not lay down any time period for
renewal, then a passport of only one year validity would be issued.
The High Court then said it would
examine the validity of the notification which requires a person with a pending
criminal case pending to first obtain a No Objection Certificate from a court
The passport issued
to Bhushan from Sep 12, 2014 with a short validity of one year, is due to
expire on September 11, 2015.
