Petitioner Jayasoorya, a film artist, holds a passport, issued in October 2008 and valid till October 2018. On 30th November 2017, he applied to the Regional Passport Officer (the “Passport Officer”), the second respondent, for its renewal because, by then, the pages in the passport were exhausted. Jayasoorya asserts that he often goes abroad. Indeed, on his application, he did secure a new passport, valid till 29.11.2027.

2. In January 2018, Jayasoorya, however, received the Ext.P3 show cause notice from the Passport Officer. The notice informs Jayasoorya that while his securing the renewed passport, he suppressed a pending criminal case against him. That case is pending before the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Ernakulam. In turn, Jayasoorya submitted the Ext.P3(a) reply. He informed the Passport Officer that he had never been aware of the pending case, for he had no notice about it.

3. Despite Jayasoorya’s Ext.P3(a) reply, the Passport Officer served the Ext.P4 notice, identical to the previous notice. Jayasoorya replied through the Ext.P4(a). Again the Passport Officer, for the third time, issued the Ext.P5 show cause notice—again an almost-identical one. And Jay