Passport officer cannot act as mouthpiece of J&K CID: High Court

The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has pulled up authorities for denying passport to PDP chief Mehbooba Muftis mother saying the passport officer cannot act as a mouthpiece of the CIDJustice M A Chowdhary while hearing the petition of Mehboobas mother Gulshan Nazir said it appears there is no ground to refuse her request for issue or renewal of passportEven there is not an iota of allegation against the petitioner that may point out to any security concerns The police verification report formulated by CIDCIK cannot override the statutory provisions of Section 6 of the Passport Act 1967 the judge said in an order pronounced on SaturdayAlso read Basic rights in India have become luxuries and entitlements Mehbooba Mufti writes to CJIThe court said otherwise also in the report relied upon by the respondents the passport officer and the appellant authority nothing adverse has been recorded against the petitioner with regard to any security concernsThe only aspect with regard to the petitioner is the reference of investigation by two agencies Enforcement Directorate and the CIDCIK with regard to some of the transactions regarding some bank accounts maintained by the petitioner either separately or jointly with Ms Mehbooba Mufti it saidSimply on the basis of the report of the Jammu and Kashmir Crime Investigation Department CID that has recommended that passport should not be issued the passport officer under the provisions of the Passport Act cannot shut his eyes and to act on that the court saidComing down heavily on authorities it said since the passport applied for by the petitioner has not been issued as the same was not recommended for security clearance by the CID the decision taken by both iquest the passport officer as well as the appellant authority iquest is misplaced on account of securityThe court said the refusal by the passport officer was nonapplication of mindAt least the passport officer should have in the background of the facts and circumstances if required asked the police and the CID agency as to whether there is anything adverse against the petitioner the court saidIn such a situation without going into the police verification report refusal on part of the passport officer simply be termed as nonapplication of mind it saidAfter looking into the referred facts and circumstances along with the CID report the court said The passport officer has not to act as mouthpiece of the CIDWhen an authority is vested with the power the same is to be exercised judiciously and not arbitrarily as has been done in the instant case it saidJustice Chowdhary said it appears that the passport officer had acted on the forwarding letter of the CID instead of analysing its report in detailIt said the police verification report prepared by the CID was with regard to two applications one by the petitioner and the other by her daughterThe report has exhaustively dealt with regard to the petitioners daughter making references to her ideology and activities which were termed as a risk to the security of India the court saidHowever there is no mention with regard to the petitioner in the report in question on the basis of which recommendation was not made to reissue passport in favour of the petitioner and the passport officer refused to issue the same for the reason of security it saidThe appellate authority also seems not to have perused the police verification report and upheld the order of the passport officer on the wrong premise of security without any foundationThe court said it is of the considered opinion that the ground on which the request of the petitioner for reissue of the passport has been rejected is totally untenable and unsustainable in the eyes of the lawThe petitioner who claims to be an octogenarian in the absence of any adverse security report cannot be deprived of her fundamental right guaranteed to her under Article 21 of the Constitution to travel abroad as an Indian citizen it addedAllowing the petition the court set aside the orders impugned and asked the passport officer to consider the entire matter afresh and pass orders within a period of six weeks from the date the copy of the order is served upon himThis 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