Kangana's passport renewal process to be expedited post-corrections: HC told

The Regional Passport Office RPO here told the Bombay High Court on Monday it will expeditiously decide on renewing Kangana Ranauts passport once the actor made requisite corrections in her application for the key travel documentAdditional Solicitor General ASG Anil Singh who appeared for the RPO told a bench of Justices SS Shinde and Revati MohiteDere that the application that Ranaut had submitted with the passport office in Mumbai had factual inconsistenciesHe said that for instance her application said that she had criminal cases pending against herHowever only an FIR had been registered against her and criminal proceedings in the said case were yet to begin Singh saidSingh told the HC that if Ranauts counsel advocate Rizwan Siddiquee clarified the same before the court and if the actor made the necessary corrections in her application the passport office would consider her plea and take an expeditious decision as per procedureThe bench accepted Singhs statementThe learned ASG on instructions submits that application does not mention the correct facts inasmuch as it is stated in the said application that criminal cases are pending against the petitioner Ranaut when in fact only FIRs are registered against the petitioner the HC observedHe Singh submits that in case the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner is ready to make a statement that no criminal case is pending against the petitioner and make appropriate corrections in the pending application before the Respondent Passport Authority the said Authority is ready to consider the application for renewal of passport in accordance with the Passport Actrules procedure expeditiously the HC said in its orderAdvocate Siddiquee then clarified that no criminal proceedings were pending against Ranaut He also agreed to make the necessary corrections in Ranauts applicationRanaut had filed an interim application in the HC earlier this month saying she needed to travel to Budapest Hungary this month for the shooting of her upcoming film Dhakkad and thus needed her passport renewedThe actor said in her plea that the renewal had been denied by the passport office on the ground that she and her sister Rangoli Chandel had an FIR registered against them by the suburban Bandra police last year on charges of sedition and for alleged hateful tweetsShe said in her plea that the RPO had raised an objection to renew or reissue her passport because of the said FIROn the previous hearing last week advocate Siddiquee had said the shooting of the film had been scheduled already and the its producers were losing money due to the delay in the shoot because of the actors inability to travel to BudapestOn Monday the bench of Justices Shinde and MohiteDere accepted the statements made by ASG Singh and advocate Siddiquee and accordingly disposed of Ranauts interim applicationIn the light of statement made by Mr Siddiquee learned counsel appearing for the petitioner Mr Anil Singh learned ASG submits that the application filed by the petitioner for renewal of passport will be decided as expeditiously as possible in accordance with relevant provisions of the Passport Actrulesprocedures the bench saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever