V. PARTHIBAN, J.

1. The case of the petitioner is as follows:

(i) The petitioner has completed Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and he was aspiring to secure employment abroad. While he was hoping to secure employment abroad, he was falsely implicated in a criminal case on the file of the second respondent - Police, for which an F.I.R. was registered, on 26.08.2013, alleging that he had committed an offence punishable under Sections 147, 148, 341, 294(b), 353 and 506(ii) I.P.C. Although F.I.R. was registered as early as in the year 2013, the admitted position is that till date, no charge sheet has been filed.

(ii) In order to fulfill his ambition of going abroad, the petitioner had applied for Passport on 11.03.2015. However, his application for issuance of Passport was not considered by the Passport Authority in view of the pendency of F.I.R. against the petitioner. Since the Passport Authority has refused to consider his application, the petitioner had approached the learned Judicial Magistrate, Valliyoor, seeking permission to go abroad and sought direction to the Passport officials to issue Passport to him. In response to the application submitted by the petitioner, the learned Judicial Magistrate, Valliyoor, passed an order, on 21.03.2018, directing the Passport Authority to issue Passport to the petitioner, subject to the condition that he shall not leave the country without obtaining prior permission from the Court. After obtaining orders from the learned Judicial Magistrate, Valliyoor, the petitioner approached the Passport Authority for issuance of Passport and finally, a Passport bearing No.S3497720 was issued to him. On receipt of the Passport, the petitioner found that the same was issued only for a period of one year i.e. from 27.06.2018 till 26.06.2019.

(iii) While matter stood thus, the petitioner received an offer of appointment from Abu Dhabi, on 24.07.2018, for appointment to the post of Site Supervisor. Unfortunately, his Visa for going to Abu Dhabi could not be processed in view of the one year period as mentioned in the petitioner's Passport. Since the petitioner has been unjustly denied the employment abroad in view of the limited period as mentioned in the Passport, he is before this Court seeking a direction to the Passport Authority to issue a regular Passport to him.

2. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would vehemently contend that the petitioner is entitled to a normal Passport, as issued to the other citizens of this country, for the simple reason that though F.I.R. was registered as early as in the year 2013, so far no charge sheet has been filed and therefore, as on date, no criminal case is pending as against the petitioner in any Criminal Court in India. The fact of non-filing of charge sheet till date has also been admitted by the learned Additional Government Pleader appearing for the second respondent - Police.

3. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would draw the attention of this Court to section 6(2)(f) of the Passports Act, 1967, which is extracted hereunder:

"6. Refusal of passports, travel documents, etc.-

(1) ...

(2) Subject to the other provisions of this Act, the passport authority shall refuse to issue a passport or travel document for visiting any foreign country under clause (c) of sub-section (2) of Section 5 on any one or more of the following grounds, and on no other ground, namely:-

(a) ...

(b) ...

(f) that proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by the applicant are pending before a Criminal Court in India."

4. According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, as on date, no case is pending before any Criminal Court in India and in such an event, the petitioner is entitled for issuance of a normal Passport as issued to the other citizens of this country.

5. The learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that when the issue, as raised in this writ petition, came up for consideration before this Court on earlier occa