JUDGMENT

Petitioner has approached this Court seeking a direction to effect necessary correction and re-issue the passport to him after renewing the validity of his passport for the 'normal' term.

2. The petitioner is an accused in C.C. 1159/2016 on the files of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-III, Perumbavoor. By Ext.P3 order dated 27.04.2021 the learned Magistrate granted permission to the petitioner to apply for an Indian passport, though, it was specified that the same is not a permission to make a foreign journey. It is submitted that when permission is granted without specifying a time limit, the passport authority issues only a short validity passport which invariably means passport having a validity of one year. Petitioner submits that he may not be in a position to obtain a visa for the course he intends to pursue abroad, with a limited validity passport.

3. It is seen from the pleadings in this writ petition that trial in the case, C.C.No.1159 of 2016 before the JFCM-III, Perumbavoor has already started. In spite of the trial starting in 2016, nothing much seems to have happened thereafter, as can be discerned from the fact that the case is still pending in the Mag