Bapi Mondal v. The Joint Secretary And Chief Passport Officer And ORS.

D/L. 29.

January 15, 2024.

MNS.

WPA No. 27141 of 2023 Bapi Mondal Vs.

The Joint Secretary and Chief Passport Officer and others Mr. Sanjit Dutta ... for the petitioner.

Sk. Md. Galib, Mr. Safik Dewan ...for the State.

1. The petitioner holds a passport. A show cause notice was issued for impounding/revocation of the said passport.

The petitioner gave reply to the proceeding in terms of the show cause notice. However, till date no hearing has been given to the petitioner.

2. Affidavit-of-service filed in Court today be kept on record.

3. Despite service, none appears for the Passport Authorities, although the State is represented through counsel.

4. WPA No. 27141 of 2023 is disposed of by directing the respondent no. 2, that is, the Regional Passport Officer, Kolkata, to give an

opportunity of hearing to the petitioner and thereafter to take a decision on the proposed revocation/annulment of the passport of the petitioner.

5. It is expected that such exercise will be completed at the earliest, preferably within four weeks from the date of communication of this order to the respondent no. 2.

6. Till the petitioner is heard, the passport of the petitioner shall not be revoked / impounded unless the same has already been revoked / impounded prior to this order.

7. If the passport of the petitioner has already been revoked / impounded in the meantime, it will be open to the petitioner to prefer an appropriate challenge against the same without being prejudiced in any manner by any of the observations made in this order.

8. There will be no order as to costs.

9. Urgent photostat certified copies of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties upon compliance with the requisite formalities. (Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.)