CITIZENS ARE BEING FORCED TO FILE LITIGATION BY INDIAN PASSPORT AUTHORITIES DESPITE THERE BEING A PROVISION FOR COMPOUNDING OF MINOR OFFENCES LIKE SUPPRESSION OF MARITAL STATUS BY PAYING FEE /PENALTY

               Recently, a client (name purposely withheld) approached our Firm -Navkiran Singh and Associates, seeking advice regarding her passport case, as RPO Chandigarh had revoked her passport No.M92XXXXXX which was still valid  on the ground that after her divorce, when she applied for her passport for renewal /re-issue, then she failed to mention her present marital status as “divorced”. On this petty ground, RPO Chandigarh revoked her passport. She had to file an appeal under section 11 of the Passport Act against the order of revocation of passport before the appellate authority i.e. Joint Secretary and Chief Passport Officer, New Delhi against the passport revocation order and the same has also been rejected by Joint Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer.

               In the said matter, a Writ Petition has been filed by Navkiran Singh and Associates on her behalf in the Hon’ble Punjab and Haryana High Court arguing that –

·        Section 12 of Passports Act provides a provision for offences and penalties under the Passport Act. As per clause (b) of sub-section 1 of section 12, suppression of information is punishable with either imprisonment which may extend to 2 years or a fine of rupees five thousand. For ready reference, clause (b) of sub-section 1 of section 12 is reproduced below:

For offences and penalties,

b knowingly furnishes any false information or suppresses any material information with a view to obtaining a passport or travel document under this Act or without lawful authority alters or attempts to alter or causes to alter the entries made in a passport or travel document;               x-x-x

   shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees or with both.

     Above-said section is supplemented by Rules i.e.  The Passports Rules, 1980. In the Rules, Annexures have been provided, which provide various forms such as for applying for a new passport, for renewal of passport etc and also, In the annexures, Penalties for Offences have been provided, in which penalty for suppression of information under section 12(1)(b) of Passports Act, 1967 is as given below :     

CLAUSE IV clearly provides penalty for Minor suppressions of information regarding marital status/name of spouse etc. inadvertently as Rs.500.

    So, since under the Passport Rules, the passport officials have been empowered to impose penalty in case a citizen does not provide full details or suppresses material information. In the present case, at worst, the petitioner should have been asked to pay penalty of Rs. 500 and the passport of the petitioner should not have been revoked.

Hon’ble High Court has issued Notice of Motion in the present case which is still pending in the High Court. The Citizen has been unnecessarily put to harassment as well as monetary loss for an avoidable action of the passport authorities.