Passport making rules change: The court clarified that since the provisions of the Passport Act, 1967 permit the passport authority to conduct checks before the issue of a passport, it can call for a police verification report regarding the past history of the person seeking the travel document.
Passport making rules change: There is good news for people waiting in the queue to get their passport made or renewed. The Rajasthan High Court has said that even if the police verification report is negative, passport cannot be stopped from being made. Recently, the High Court has ruled that a negative police verification report in itself does not deprive a citizen of the legal right to get a passport. The bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand emphasized that the passport authority is not bound by the police report.
While hearing the petition of Savitri Sharma in the case of Savitri Sharma vs Union of India, the bench in its judgment said, “An adverse police verification report cannot deprive a citizen of his legal right to get a passport. It is for the passport authority to decide whether passport should be issued to the person keeping in view the facts/antecedents of the person accused in the verification report.”
However, the court has given the passport department the freedom to take action as per law if any discrepancy is found in the police verification. Along with this, the High Court directed the Central Government and the passport officer to execute the petitioner’s passport renewal application within 8 weeks. The High Court said that no Indian citizen can be deprived of his legal right to obtain or renew his passport. The court clearly said that the decision to issue a passport or travel document should be taken only by the passport authority.
The court clarified that since the provisions of the Passport Act, 1967 allow the passport authority to conduct an inquiry before issuing a passport, it can ask for a police verification report regarding the past history of the person seeking a travel document. The purpose of such an inquiry by the passport authority is to enable it to decide whether a passport should be issued or rejected in the circumstances of each particular case. However, the court clarified that ultimately the decision is to be taken by the passport authority, which also includes the option of taking into account the investigation report.
In the case, the petitioner’s passport was valid till May, 2022. In such a situation, he had applied to the department for passport renewal, but his application was rejected after the report came negative in the police verification. The petitioner challenged this in the High Court and requested for passport renewal. The police had raised doubts over the nationality of the applicant. The petitioner told that his grandfather lived in Nepal but he is an Indian by birth. He also had two children here and got married here in India.
