Passport issuance or renewal is contingent upon production of orders from the concerned Court permitting the applicant to depart from India when a criminal case is pending before a Court.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Writ Petition - filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying this Court to issue a Writ of Mandamus, directing the 1st respondent to issue Passport to the petitioner, based on the petitioner's Passport Application File No. TRI066095422323 (Application Ref.No. 23-10115520167) dated 26.12.2023.)

1. This Writ Petition has been filed for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus, directing the first respondent to issue passport to the petitioner, based on the petitioner's Passport Application File No. TRI066095422323 (Application Ref.No. 23-10115520167) dated 26.12.2023.

2. When the matter is taken up for hearing today, the learned Government Advocate (Crl.side) appearing for the respondent police would submit that charge sheet has been filed against the petitioner and the same was taken on file in C.C.No.163 of 2023 before the learned Judicial Magistrate, Alangudi.

3. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, learned counsel appearing for the first respondent and the learned Government Advocate (Crl.side) appearing for the second respondent.

4. This Court had an occasion to deal with a similar issue in W.P.(MD) No.7056 of 2017 in the case of N.Chandrababu vs. the Sub Inspector of Police and another. The relevant portions in the order dated 21.04.2017 are extracted hereunder:

“3)..... At this juncture, it may be relevant to discuss the legal position with regard to the right of a person facing criminal prosecution to demand issuance of passport. To decide this issue, it may be necessary to extract the following legal provisions from the Passports Act, 1967.

'Section 5(2) of the Passports Act, 1967

On receipt of an application under this section, the passport authority, after making such inquiry, if any, as it may consider necessary, shall, subject to the other provisions of this Act, by order in writing,-

(a) issue the passport or travel document with endorsement, or,as the case may be, make on the passport or travel document the endorsement, in respect of the foreign countries specified in the application; or

(b) issue the passport or travel document with endorsement, or,as the case may be, make on the passport or travel document the endorsement, in respect of one or more of the foreign countries specified in the application and refuse to make an endorsement in respect of the other country or countries ; or

(c) refuse to issue the passport or travel document or, as the case may be, refuse to make on the passport or travel document any endorsement.

Section 6(2) of the Passports Act, 1967.

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, an on no other ground,

(a) that the applicant is not a citizen of India;

(b) that the applicant may, or is likely to, engage outside India in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India;

(c) that the departure of the applicant from India may, or is likely to, be detrimental to the security of India;

(d) that the presence of the applicant outside India may, or is likely to, prejudice the friendly relations of India with any foreign country;

(e) that the applicant has, at an time during the period of five years immediately preceding the date of his application, been convicted by a Court in India for any offence involving moral turpitude and sentenced in respect thereof to imprisonment for not less than two years;

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

(g) that a warrant or summons for the appearance, or a warrant for the arrest, of the applicant has been issued by a Court