High Court of Punjab and HaryanaCRR/2364/2023disposed of

Sarabjit Kaur @ Dalbir Kaur v. State Of Punjab

2025-08-06Mr. Justice Yashvir Singh Rathor11 pages

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+0 + Present :

Mr. Ankur Bansal, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. G.S. Dhaliwal, AAG, Punjab.

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By this order, I shall dispose of an application moved by applicant seeking permission to apply for a passport before the passport authority. The brief facts of the case are that appellant has been held guilty and convicted vide judgment and order dated 19.09.2014 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Gurdaspur and he has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for 3 years with a fine of Rs.5,000/1 and in default of payment of fine to undergo SI for 2 months. The appellant preferred Criminal Appeal CRA1S141221SB12014 which has been admitted vide order dated 07.10.2014 and his sentence has been suspended vide order dated 17.10.2014.

Now, the application in hand has been instituted seeking permission to apply for passport before the passport authority.

Learned counsel for the applicant contends that application in hand has been moved seeking permission of this Court to apply for issuance of passport of a passport in view of office memorandum dated 10.10.2019 by the Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs PSP Division regarding issuance of passports to the persons against whom criminal cases are pending. Infact, the sons of the applicant are residing in USA and Australia and he intends to visit them alongwith his wife. Therefore, he prays that the permission be granted to apply for the issuance of a passport.

Learned counsel for the petitioner as well as learned State counsel have been heard and material collected by the police during investigation has been perused.

It would be necessary to examine the relevant provisions of the Passport Act, to decide the present application. Section 6 of the Passport Act, 1967 held as under:1

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Section 22 of the Passport Act, 1967 held as under:1 %% /' .0 +

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6. The Notification dated 25.08.1993 of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, is reproduced below:1 2)3)4 5 16 7847 3 9 66 ) 314)6)+ 4)13 3' :

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The Office Memorandum dated 10.10.2019 issued by Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India reads as under:1 No.

Vl/401/1/5/2019 Government of India Ministry of External Affairs PSP Division Patiala House Annexe, Tilak Marg New Delhi, the 10th October, 2019 OFFICE MEMORANDUM Subject:1 Issue of passports to applicants against whom criminal cases are pending before a court of law in·India.

Reference is invited to Notification No. GSR 570(E) d a t e d 2 5 . 0 8 . 1 9 9 3 regarding issuance of passports to applicant who have criminal proceedings pending against them and whose applications would attract the provisions of clause (f) of sub1section (2) of Section 6 of the Passports Act, 1967.

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( GSR 570(E) 1 In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of Section 22 of the Passports Act, 1967 (15 of 1967) and in supersession of the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of External Affairs No. GSR 298(E) dated the 14th April 1976, the Central Government, being of the opinion that it is necessary in public interest to do so, hereby exempts citizens of India against whom proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by them are pending before a criminal court in India and who produce orders from the court concerned permitting them to depart from India, from the operation of the provisions of Clause (/) of sub section (2) of Section 6 of the said Act, subject to the following conditions, namely:1 ! -

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) ( i) The provisions of GSR 570(E) may be strictly applied in all cases. GSR 570(E) is a statutory notification and hence forms part of the Rules. lt is to be noted that as per Section 5(2) of the Passports Act, 1967, the passport authority shall by order in writing take a decision whether to issue or refuse a passport, after making such inquiry , if any, as it may consider necessary. Moreover, Section 7 of the Passports Act, provides that a passport or travel document may be issued 1 for a shorter period than the prescribed period if the passport authority , for reasons to be communicated in writing to the applicant, considers in any case that the passport or travel document should be issued for a shorter period. Rule 12 of the Passport Rules, 1980 only states that an ordinary passport shall. . e in force for a period of 10 years which implies that an ordinary passport cannot be issued beyond a period of 10 years. 0 # J3 1

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(Arun Kumar Chatterjee) Joint

Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer"

A perusal of the aforementioned provisions of the Passports Act shows that the Passport Authority can refuse to issue a passport or travel document, where proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by the applicant1appellant are pending before a Criminal Court in India.

However, in terms of Section 22 of the Passport Act any person or class of persons can be exempted from the operation of all or any provisions of this Act or the Rules thereunder. In terms of Section 22 of the Passport Act, a Notification dated 25.08.1993 of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India (supra) was issued, according to which citizens of India are exempted from the operation of Sections 6 and 6(2F) of the Passport Act, if they produce orders from the Court (No Objection Certificate) permitting them to depart from India. The said notification is referred to in the Office Memo NO.VI/401/1/5/2019 Government of India Ministry of External Affairs PSP Division Dated 10.10.2019 (Annexure A11). 9.

A Coordinate Bench of this Court while deciding

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&' ()* vide order dated 10.01.2024 has allowed similar prayer and granted permission to apply for passport before the Passport Authority in a case, where accused was involved in a criminal case which squarely covers the present case.

10.

In view of the Notification dated 25.08.1993 and office memo dated 10.10.2019 (Annexure A-1) read with the provisions of the Passport Act and the relevant judgment (supra), it is apparent that this

Court can, during the pendency of Criminal Proceedings grant the necessary clearance to the applicant enabling him to apply for a passport.

11. In view of the above, the prayer of the applicant is accepted and he is granted permission to apply for the issuance of a Passport before the Passport Authority and the said Authority without raising objections relating to the pendency of the present criminal appeal in this Court but subject to the other conditions being fulfilled consider the case of the applicant for the issuance of a passport in accordance with law.

12. The application stands disposed of.

13. Pending misc. application (s), if any, shall also stand disposed of.

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06.08.2025

Whether speaking/reasoned Yes/No

Whether Reportable

Yes/No