M. S. MENON, C. J. (O. P. 1135/65) : The petitioner is a young graduate in medicine and surgery. He obtained facilities for higher training and study In the United States of America and applied for a passport. The application was rejected. This petition challenges the validity of that rejection.

2. There is no statute in this country governing the issue of a passport or a refusal thereof. Any legislation in that behalf under entry 19 of List I of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution - admission into, and emigration and expulsion from India; passports and visas - is still a matter for the future.

3. There is, however, a statute taking power to require passports of persons entering India, the Indian Passport Act, 1920. Rules, the Indian Passport Rules, 1950, have been framed under S. 3 of that enactment.

4. V.G. Row v. State of Madras, AIR 1954 Mad 240, took the view that there is no provision forbidding an Indian citizen from entering India without a passport. That view was not accepted in Abdul Rahim v. State of Bombay, AIR 1958 Bom 115. The Bombay decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court in Abdul Rahim v. State of Bombay, AIR 1959 SC 1315. The Supreme Court said :

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