A person involved in a criminal case is required to obtain a No Objection Certificate from the criminal court in which his case is pending, in order to obtain a reissue of his passport.

ORDER :

U. Durga Prasad Rao, J.

1. In this writ petition, the petitioner challenges the letter in Reference No. OBJ/310427239/20 dated 17.11.2020 issued by 3rd respondent refusing to reissue the passport effecting certain changes to existing personal particulars of the petitioner by adding the name of his newly married wife.

2. The petitioner works in a private company, Qatar, Middle East. He married Pravallika on 15.02.2013. It appears, due to some matrimonial bickering his wife gave a report, basing on which, the police of Mahila Police Station, Chittoor registered a case in Cr. No. 7/2015 against the petitioner and his relations under Sections 498(A), 323, 325 r/w 34 IPC and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. As he was at Qatar, a NBW was issued against him and charge sheet was filed and case was registered as C.C. No. 281/2015. On 06.02.2017, the petitioner returned to India and he was arrested at Chennai Airport and was handed over by the Airport Authorities to the Station House Officer, Mahila Police Station, Chittoor along with his passport, who came to execute NBW. He was then produced before the jurisdictional Magistrate and in Crl. M.P. No. 1630/2016 the petitioner was granted conditional bail. It would appear that the petitioner filed Crl. M.P. No. 129/2017 seeking return of his passport and to delete the lookout circular issued against him. The said petition was partly allowed by the learned III Additional Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Chittoor directing return of the passport to the petitioner while rejecting the other prayer.

(a) Be that it may, the case of the petitioner is that while contesting the criminal case, he filed H.M.O.P. No. 32/2017 against his wife Pravallika before the Principal Senior Civil Judge, Chittoor seeking divorce. She remained ex parte and consequently the trial Court granted divorce by its order dated 28.02.2019. Thereafter, the writ petitioner had second marriage on 17.04.2019 with one Priyanka Naidu. The petitioner obtained leave from 07.11.2020 to 10.12.2020 from his employer and returned from Qatar to India. He intended to include the name of his wife Priyanka Naidu in his passport and for that purpose he submitted an application on 10.11.2020 to 3rd respondent for reissue of his passport vide File No. VJ 8073092651720. On verification, 3rd respondent issued the impugned letter dated 17.11.2020 stating that as per the police verification report, the petitioner was involved in Cr. No. 7/2015 of Mahila Police Station, Chittoor and therefore, the petitioner has to submit his explanation along with required documents. On 17.11.2020 itself, the petitioner personally went and submitted his explanation stating that in view of the orders passed in Crl. M.P. No. 129/2017 in C.C. No. 281/2015 and Crl. M.P. No. 225/2017 in Crl. M.P. No. 129/2017 there was no hurdle for the passport authority to include the revised particulars about his marital status and to reissue the passport. However, 3rd respondent did not consider his request.

Hence, the writ petition.

3. Heard Sri K. Ramakoteswara Rao, learned counsel for petitioner, and learned Assistant Solicitor General of India representing the respondents 1 to 3, and learned Government Pleader for Home representing the respondents 4 & 5.

4. The main plank of the argument of learned counsel for petitioner is that the petitioner was issued passport on 09.03.2013, which was valid upto 08.03.2023 and therefore, his is not a case of issuing fresh passport or renewal of the same. His application was only to revise his marital status and to include the name of his newly married second wife and to reissue the passport. However, instead of considering his request, 3rd respondent rejected his request on the ground that the petitioner is involved in criminal case. Learned counsel would submit that since the petitioner was granted bail in Crl. M.P. No. 1630/2016 and his seized passport was also returned by the order of the Court in Crl. M.P. No. 129/201