The renewal of a passport must follow the same procedures as a fresh application, particularly regarding pending criminal proceedings, necessitating court permission per the Passports Act.

ORDER :

G.JAYACHANDRAN, J.

Thiru. Jawahar Rajan, the petitioner herein holds Indian Passport bearing No: N8141097, which is valid upto 03.03.2026. He made an online application for re-issue of passport under TATKAAL scheme on 22.08.2025. In view of the adverse Police Verification Report (PVR), the Regional Passport Office, Coimbatore, vide communication dated 11.09.2025 sought explanation within 30 days from the petitioner regarding Cr.No.26 of 2021 on the file of District Crime Branch, Madurai for the offence under Sections 120B, 294(b), 406,420 IPC registered against the petitioner and others.

2.He has filed the above writ petition stating that, in response to the letter seeking clarification, he appeared and explained to the Officer concerned that the said complaint is a false complaint and he is ready to co-operate for the trial and has no intention to evade the clutches of the law. Despite the said explanation, the Regional Passport Officer has not processed the application hence, he prays for issuance of Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus to call for the impugned communication dated 11.09.2025 made in Letter Ref No.SCN/1050049601/25 in File No.CB1075601279425 issued by the 1^st respondent and quash the same and consequential direction to the 1^st respondent to take steps to reissue the passport based on the renewal application submitted by the petitioner vide application No.25-1059701888(File No.CB1075601279425) dated 08.09.2025.

3.The learned Judge, in view of conflicting judgments rendered by two Division Benches of this Court, without going into the merits of the case referred the matter for decision by a Larger Bench. The Learned Judge has framed the question that requires consideration as below:-

“ Whether the re-issue / renewal of the passport has to be treated by the Passport Officer in the same manner as the issuance of a fresh passport, or simpliciter a case of renewal”?

4.The two judgments, which the learned Single Judge, had referred are:-

1.W.A(MD)No.902 of 2023 dated 02.06.2023, (Regional Passport Officer –vs- Samsudeen Mohamed Salih and another). In this case, the learned single Judge directed the Regional Passport Officer to re-issue passport without insisting on prior permission from the court where the criminal case is pending against the writ petitioner. On appeal by the Regional Passport Officer, the Division Bench confirmed the writ court order with the following observation:-

“In the light of the above, we pass the following order:

(i)The writ appellant shall process the application of the first respondent for renewal of passport without insisting for permission of the Court, where a criminal case is pending against the first respondent. If the first respondent is travellling abroad, then the first respondent would be required to seek permission from the Court where the criminal case is pending.

(ii)Decision shall be taken as above, without one month.”

2).W.A(MD)No.2282 of 2025 dated 26.08.2025 (Ganesan Kumaresan –vs- The Regional Passport Officer, Madurai and another). In contrary to the judgement rendered in Samsudeen Mohamed Salih's case(cited supra), the Division Bench of this Court held that prior permission of the Court, in which, the passport applicant facing trial of criminal case is mandatory for re-issuance of passport. The operative portion of the judgment in Ganesan Kumaresan case reads as under:-

“The petitioner is given liberty to move the trial Court for the relief now sought for. As and whe