Naveen Thaduri vs The Union Of India, Ministry Of External ...

Telangana High Court

Naveen Thaduri vs The Union Of India, Ministry Of External ... on 11 January, 2024

Author: Surepalli Nanda

Bench: Surepalli Nanda

            HON'BLE MRS JUSTICE SUREPALLI NANDA


               WRIT PETITION No.829 OF 2024
ORDER:

Heard Mr. K. Jagadishwar Reddy, learned counsel for

the petitioner and Sri Gadi Praveen Kumar, learned

Deputy Solicitor General of India appearing for sole-

respondent.

2. The case of the petitioner is that he made an online

application for issuance of passport vide reference

No.23-1004078747 dated 31.03.2023 by paying necessary fee.

However, the application was refused on the ground that the

CC.No.89 of 2022 on the file of Judicial Magistrate of First Class,

Alair is pending against the petitioner. Thereafter, the petitioner

made another representation dated 17.05.2023 along with

necessary documents for issuance of passport. However, no

action has been taken on the said representation till date.

Aggrieved by the same, the petitioner has filed the present writ

petition.

3. It is contended by the learned counsel appearing on behalf

of the petitioner that petitioner herein is an accused No.3 in

C.C.No.89 of 2022 for the offences punishable under Section 3

and 4 of Gaming Act and it is pending and the petitioner is not

even convicted in the said case, hence, respondent cannot refuse 2 SN, J W.P. No.829 of 2024

the issuance of passport of the petitioner on the ground of the

pendency of the aforesaid criminal case against the petitioner

and the said action of the respondent authorities is contrary to

the procedure laid down under the Passports Act, 1967 and also

the principle laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in

"Vangala Kasturi Rangacharyulu v. Central Bureau of

Investigation", reported in 2020 Crl.L.J. (SC) 572.

4. It is also relevant to note that the Apex Court in

Vangala Kasturi Rangacharyulu (supra) had an occasion to

examine the provisions of the Passports Act, 1967, pendency of

criminal cases and held that refusal of a passport can be only in

case where an applicant is convicted during the period of five

(05) years immediately preceding the date of application for an

offence involving moral turpitude and sentence for imprisonment

for not less than two years. Section 6.2(f) relates to a situation

where the applicant is facing trial in a criminal Court. The

petitioner therein was convicted in a case for the offences under

Sections 420 IPC and also Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)

of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, against which, an

appeal was filed and the same was dismissed. The sentence was

reduced to a period of one (01) year. The petitioner therein had

approached the Apex Court by way of filing an appeal and the

same is pending. Therefore, considering the said facts, the Apex 3 SN, J W.P. No.829 of 2024

Court held that Passport Authority cannot refuse renewal of the

passport on the ground of pendency of the criminal appeal.

Thus, the Apex Court directed the Passport Authority to renew

the passport of the applicant without raising the objection

relating to the pendency of the aforesaid criminal appeal in S.C.

5. The Apex Court in another judgment reported in

2013 (15) SCC page 570 in Sumit Mehta v State of NCT of

Delhi at para 13 observed as under:

"The law presumes an accused to be innocent till his guilt is proved. As a presumable innocent person, he is entitled to all the fundamental rights including the right to liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India."

6. The Apex Court in Menaka Gandhi vs Union of

India reported in 1978 (1) SCC 248, held that no person

can be deprived of his right to go abroad unless there is a

law enabling the State to do so and such law contains fair,

reasonable and just procedure. Para 5 of the said

judgment is relevant and the same is extracted below:

"Thus, no person can be deprived of his right to, go abroad unless there is a law made by the State prescribing the procedure for so depriving him and the deprivation is effected strictly in accordance with such procedure. It was for this reason, in order to comply with the requirement of Article 21, that Parliament enacted the Passports Act, 1967 for regulating the right to go abroad. It is clear from the provisions of the Passports, Act, 1967 that is lays down the circumstances under which a passport may be issued or 4 SN, J W.P. No.829 of 2024

refused or cancelled or impounded and also prescribes a procedure for doing so, but the question is whether that is sufficient compliance with Article 21. Is the prescription of some sort of procedure enough or must the procedure comply with any particular requirements? Obviously, procedure cannot be arbitrary, unfair or unreasonable. This indeed was conceded by the learned Attorney General who with his usual candour frankly stated that it was not possible for him to contend that any procedure howsoever arbitrary, oppressive or unjust may be prescribed by the law.

Therefore, such a right to travel abroad cannot be deprived except by just, fair and reasonable procedure.

7. The Division Bench of the Apex Court in its

judgment dated 09.04.2019 reported in 2019 SCC online

SC 2048 in Satish Chandra Verma v Union of India (UOI)

and others it is observed at para 5 as under:

"The right to travel abroad is an important basic human right for it nourishes independent and self-determining creative character of the individual, not only by extending his freedoms of action, but also by extending the scope of his experience. The right also extends to private life; marriage, family and friendship which are the basic humanities which can be affected through refusal of freedom to go abroad and this freedom is a genuine human right."

8. Referring to the said principle and also the

principles laid down by the Apex Court in several other

judgments, considering the guidelines issued by the Union

of India from time to time, the Division Bench of High

Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in Noor Paul 5 SN, J W.P. No.829 of 2024

Vs. Union of India reported in 2022 SCC online P & H 1176

held that a right to travel abroad cannot be deprived

except by just, fair and reasonable procedure.

9. In the judgment dated 08.04.2022 of the Andhra

Pradesh High Court reported in 2023 (4) ALT 406 (AP) in Ganni

Bhaskara Rao Vs. Union of India and another at paras 4, 5 and

6, it is observed as under:

"This Court after hearing both the learned counsel notices that Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, in Criminal Appeal No. 1342 of 2017, was dealing with a person, who was convicted by the Court and his appeal is pending for decision in the Supreme Court. The conviction I was however stayed. In those circumstances also it was held that the passport authority cannot refuse the "renewal" of the passport.

This Court also holds that merely because a person is an accused in a case it cannot be said that he cannot "hold"

or possess a passport. As per our jurisprudence every person is presumed innocent unless he is proven guilty. Therefore, the mere fact that a criminal case is pending against the person is not a ground to conclude that he cannot possess or hold a passport. Even under Section 10 (d) of the Passports Act, the passport can be impounded only if the holder has been convicted of an offence involving "moral turpitude" to imprisonment of not less than two years. The use of the conjunction and makes it clear that both the ingredients must be present. Every conviction is not a ground to impound the passport. If this is the situation post-conviction, in the opinion of this Court, the pendency of a case/cases is not a ground to refuse, renewal or to demand the surrender of a passport.

SN, J W.P. No.829 of 2024

10. In view of the above, this Court opines that mere

pendency of criminal case is not a ground to decline renewal of

passport. Further, the petitioner is ready to co-operate with the

trial Court in concluding trial. Therefore, the petitioner herein

sought issuance of necessary directions to respondent for

consideration of the application of the petitioner for renewal of

passport. Thus, on the ground of pendency of the above

criminal case, passport cannot be denied to the petitioner.

11. In view of the aforesaid discussion, this writ

petition is disposed of at the admission stage, directing

respondent authorities for issuance of petitioners onlilne

application dated to consider the application vide

reference No.23-1004078747 dated 31.03.2023 bearing

submitted by the petitioner seeking to consider his

application for issuance of passport duly taking into

consideration the view taken by the High Courts and

Supreme Court in all the Judgments referred to and

extracted above without reference to the pendency of the

proceedings in C.C.No.89 of 2022, subject to the following

conditions:

i) The petitioner herein shall submit an undertaking

along with an affidavit in C.C.No.89 of 2022, pending

on the file of Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Alair, 7 SN, J W.P. No.829 of 2024

stating that he will not leave India during pendency

of the said C.C. without permission of the Court and

that he will co-operate with trial Court in concluding

the proceedings in the said C.C.;