Kerala High Court: The Bench of Devan Ramachandran, J. disposed of a petition cautioning Passport Authority of not taking any action against the petitioner without properly notifying him as any action taken against him without his knowledge, might be detrimental to his employment in the USA.
Petitioner herein had applied for renewal of his passport; but when the Consulate subsequently received information of a criminal case pending against him, he was issued a notice by the Vice-Consul (Passports) asking him to show cause why his passport should not be revoked under Section 10(1)(b) and 10(1)(e) of the Passport Act, 1967. Aggrieved thereby, the instant petition was filed.
Petitioner’s submission was that when he applied for renewal of his passport, he was not aware of any crime pending against him since he had not received any notice or summons from Court with respect to this case.
The Court noted that it was virtually admitted that there was a criminal case pending against the petitioner at the time of submitting an application for renewal. It may be true that the petitioner was not aware of pendency of the criminal case, because he had not received any notice/summons from Court. However, these are issues that the petitioner ought to have brought to notice of Consulate General of India.
It was opined that since the impugned notice was only a show cause notice, there was no need for petitioner to approach this Court by filing this writ petition since these issues could certainly have been considered by the appropriate authority in terms of Passport Act. In view thereof, petitioner was directed to answer the show cause, detailing all his defences and the Passport Authority was directed to consider the same, after affording the petitioner an opportunity of hearing.[Arun Harshan v. Union of India, 2019 SCC OnLine Ker 776, Order dated 01-03-2019]