Harcharan Singh vs Union of India & another

Sudhanshu Dhulia, J. (Oral)

The petitioner is an accused in a case under Section 3/7 of the Essential Commodities Act, in which chargesheet has been filed against the petitioner

and presently a criminal trial is going on against the petitioner before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rudrapur, District Udham Singh Nagar. The

petitioner needs a passport so that he can travel to Canada to meet his son.

Learned counsel for the Union of India has also filed the counter affidavit.

Section 6 (2) (b) of the Passports Act, 1967 reads as under:

“6. Refusal of passports, travel documents, etc. â€" (1) Subject to the other provisions of this Act, the passport authority shall refuse to make an

endorsement for visiting any foreign country under clause (b) or clause (c) of sub-section (2) of Section 5 on any one or more of the following

grounds, and on no other ground, namely:-

(a)….

(b)….

(c)….

(d)….

(2) Subject to the other provisions of this Act, the passport authority shall refuse to issue a passport or travel document for visiting any foreign country

under clause (c) of sub-section (2) of Section 5 on any one or more of the following grounds, and on no other ground, namely:-

(a) …..

(b) …...

(c) ……

(d) ……

(e) …….

(f) that proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by the applicant are pending before a criminal court in India;â€​

All the same, under Section 22 of the Passports Act, 1967 powers are also there with the Central Government to exempt certain provisions of the

Act. In exercise of this power under Section 22 of the Act, the Central Government has come up with a notification dated 25 th August, 1993, wherein

“the Central Government being of the opinion that it is necessary in public interest to do so, hereby exempts citizens of India against whom

proceedings in respect of any offence alleged to have been committed by them are pending before a criminal court in India and who produce orders

from the court concerned permitting them to depart from India from the operation of the provisions of Clause (f) of sub-section (2) of Section 6 of the

said Actâ€​ subject to certain conditions made therein.

Under these circumstances, the “court concernedâ€​ would be the court where the criminal case is pending.

Writ petition is therefore disposed with liberty to the petitioner to move an appropriate application before the court below, where criminal case is

going on against the petitioner.