Gujarat High Court
Dipakbhai Taileshbhai Soni vs State Of Gujarat on 27 September, 2022
R/SCR.A/10151/2022 ORDER DATED: 27/09/2022
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/SPECIAL CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 10151 of 2022
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DIPAKBHAI TAILESHBHAI SONI
Versus
STATE OF GUJARAT
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Appearance:
MR RUTIK P DESAI(12360) for the Applicant(s) No. 1
for the Respondent(s) No. 2
MS. MOXA THAKKAR, APP for the Respondent(s) No. 1
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CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE NIRAL R. MEHTA
Date : 27/09/2022
ORAL ORDER
(1) By way of the present petition, the petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs:
"[A] YOUR LORDSHIPS may be pleased to allow the present application.
[B] YOUR LORDSHIPS may be pleased to issue Writ of Mandamus or writ in nature of Mandamus or any other appropriate Writ, Order or Direction, directing the respondent No.2 i.e. the Regional Passport Authority to issue passport of the petitioner for a period of 10 years considering the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case in the interest of justice;
C. Pending admission, hearing and final disposal of this petition, this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to direct the respondent No.2 to accept and consider the application for issuance of Passport vide application No. AH1065711047621 for a period of 10 years.Page 1 of 4 Downloaded on : Fri Sep 30 20:27:33 IST 2022
R/SCR.A/10151/2022 ORDER DATED: 27/09/2022 [2] Learned advocate appearing for the petitioner has submitted that
the petitioner has been arrested in connection with an FIR being C. R. No. 11216007200579 of 2020 registered with Gandhinagar Sector 11 Police Station, for the offences punishable under sections 66(1), (b), 84, 65(a)
(a), 116-B and 81 of the Gujarat Prohibition Act and Section 269 of the Indian Penal Code as well as Section 3 of the Epidemic Act, 1987 and the District and Sessions Court, Gandhinagar has granted granted bail to the petitioner on certain terms and conditions including to surrender passport before the District and Sessions Court Gandhinagar. He would further submit that that the petitioner is working as partner in the Company Krishna Solutions and Companies, having a certificate of importer and exporter Code (IEC) issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ahmedabad. For the purpose of expansion of business, the petitioner needs to get his passport from the competent authority. Therefore, the petitioner prays before this Court to direct the respondent No. 2 to issue passport for a period of 10 years for business purpose.
[4] It appears from the materials on record that, as on date, there is one prosecution pending against the writ-applicant herein for the offence punishable under the provisions of sections 66(1), (b), 84, 65(a)(a), 116-B and 81 of the Gujarat Prohibition Act and Section 269 of the Indian Penal Code as well as Section 3 of the Epidemic Act, 1987. This prosecution is of the year 2021. Since the criminal prosecution is pending, the Passport Authority has not incline to issue Passport which is lying with him to the petitioner. The authority concerned shall look into the notification issued by the Ministry of External Affairs dated 25th August 1993 in this regard. It reads as under:
"In exercise of the process conferred by clause (a) of Section 22 of the Passport Act, 1967 (15 of 1967) and in supersession of the Notification Page 2 of 4 Downloaded on : Fri Sep 30 20:27:33 IST 2022 R/SCR.A/10151/2022 ORDER DATED: 27/09/2022 of the Government of India in the Ministry of External Affairs No. G.S.R 298 (E) dated the 14th April, 1976, 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 an 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 Act, subject to the following conditions, namely :-
(a) the passport to be issued to every such citizen shall be issued-
(i) for the period specified in order of the court referred to above, if the court specifies a period for which the passport has to be issued; or
(ii) if no period either for the issue of the passport or for the travel abroad is specified in such order, the passport shall be issued for a period of one year;
(iii) if such order gives permission to travel abroad for a period less than one year, but does not specify the period validity of the passport, the passport shall be issued for one year; or
(iv) if such order gives permission to travel abroad for a period exceeding one year, and does not specify the validity of the passport, then the passport shall be issued for the period of travel abroad specified in the order; or
(b) any passport issued in terms of (a)(ii) and (a) (iii) above can be further renewal for one year at a time, provided the applicant has not travelled abroad for the period sanctioned by the court and provided further that in the meantime the order of the Court is not cancelled or modified;
(c) any passport issued in terms of (a) (i) above can be further renewed Page 3 of 4 Downloaded on : Fri Sep 30 20:27:33 IST 2022 R/SCR.A/10151/2022 ORDER DATED: 27/09/2022 only on the basis of a fresh court order specifying a further period of validity of the passport or specifying a period of travel abroad;
(d) the said citizen shall give an undertaking in writing to the passport issuing authority that he shall, if required by the court concerned, appear before it at any time during the continuance to force of the passport so issued."
[5] With the above, the Regional Passport Officer is directed to process the application filed by the petitioner herein for a Passport and issue the Passport with a validity period of 5 years, in terms of the notification referred to above. This exercise shall be completed within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of the writ of this order. If it is possible for the authority concerned to issue the Passport even before two weeks all endeavours shall be made in this regard.
[6] With the above, this application is disposed of. Direct service is permitted.
(NIRAL R. MEHTA,J) VISHAL MISHRA Page 4 of 4 Downloaded on : Fri Sep 30 20:27:33 IST 2022