Judicial approval is required before a petitioner can travel abroad while under the court's scrutiny for ongoing criminal cases.

ORDER

Dated this the 25^th day of February, 2025 Petitioner is working as Scientist/Engineer-SF in VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram and has been nominated by the Department of Space to attend an academic programme at the International Space University, scheduled to be held from 20.06.2025 at 22.08.2025 at Seoul in South Korea. As the petitioner is arrayed as an accused in C.C.Nos.531 and 664 of 2022 pending before the Special Court of Judicial Magistrate of First Class Magistrate of First Class for Trial of Cases under Section 138 of the N.I. Act (JMFC XI), Thiruvananthapuram, he moved an application before that court, seeking permission to revalidate his passport and travel abroad. By the impugned Annexure A2 order, the application was partly allowed by declaring that there was no objection in renewing the petitioner's passport as per norms. In spite of such declaration, the court clarified that permission is only for revalidating the passport and petitioner should not go abroad without the permission of the court.

2. Learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that having declared no objection in revalidating petitioner's passport, the court below should not have added a rider that the petitioner shall not go abroad without permission from the court. More so, since the prayer in the application was for permission to revalidate passport and to travel abroad.

3. I heard the learned Public Prosecutor and the learned Senior Panel Counsel.

4. A perusal of Annexure A1 shows that the petitioner has been selected to attend a prestigious academic programme at South Korea from 20.06.2025 to 22.08.2025. Being so, his request for revalidation of passport and permission to travel abroad is well founded. It is clear from the impugned order that the petitioner is not restrained from travelling abroad, but is only required to seek permission from the court. As such, the order warrants no interference.

The Crl.M.C. is hence disposed of by granting liberty to the petitioner to seek permission from the learned Magistrate to travel abroad for attending the academic programme mentioned in Annexure A1, after getting his passport revalidated. On an application being filed, learned Magistrate shall grant permission to the petitioner to travel abroad for a reasonable period on condition which the court deems appropriate. The order shall be passed within two weeks of submission of the application.