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9. The main contention of the petitioner is that the Criminal Cases that are pending against him from the year 2001, were not considered as an impediment for this Court to order the return of the passport in December, 2004 so as to enable the petitioner to travel to USA. The pendency of those Criminal Cases was also not considered as an impediment for this Court to pass order in W.P.No. 24158 of 2006. According to Mr.K.S.Rajagopalan, learned counsel for the petitioner, the Inspector of Police, Economic Offences Wing as well as the Regional Passport Officer were parties to W.P.No. 24158 of 2006. In the counter affidavit filed to the said writ petition, the Assistant Passport Officer had made a mention about the Criminal Cases pending against the petitioner and had also taken a stand that under Section 6(2)(e) read with sections 10(b) and (e) of the Passport Act 1967, the Passport Authority is entitled to refuse to issue passport. But despite such objections on the part of the Passport Authority, K.Chandru,J allowed the writ petition W.P.No. 24158 of 2006 by order dated 12.09.2006. Therefore, the learned counsel contends that it is not open to the Respondents to take the very same stand as they had taken earlier, especially after such a stand was rejected by this Court.

10. I have carefully considered the above submissions.

11. By the impugned order dated 12.11.2013, the first Respondent rejected the request of the petitioner for the reissue of passport facilities till the disposal of the Criminal Cases, by relying upon Section 6(2)(f) of the Indian Passports Act, 1967. Section 6(2)(f) reads as follows:-

"6. Refusal of Passports, travel documents etc."

(1) ..........

(2) Subject to the other provisions of the 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 of no other grounds:

(a) .......
(b) .......
(c) .......
(d) .......
(e) .......
(f) that proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by the applicant are pending before the Criminal Court in India.

12. A careful look at Section 6 would show that it deals with two contingencies. The first is about an endorsement for visiting any foreign country. The second is about the issue of a passport. Both are to be traced only to two clauses namely Clause (b) or Clause (c) of sub-section (2) of Section 5. Clause (b) of sub-section (2) of Section 5 enables the Passport Authority, upon receipt of an application, to issue a passport or travel document with endorsement in respect of one or more of the foreign countries specified in the application and refuse to make an endorsement in respect of other countries, after making such enquiry as it considers necessary. Clause (c) of sub-section (2) of Section 5 empowers the Passport Authority to refuse to issue passport or travel document. Sub-section (3) of Section 5 states that where the Passport Authority makes an order under Clause (b) or (c) of sub-section (2), it shall record in writing a brief statement of its reasons and furnish to the person concerned, a copy of the same.

15. Section 10A deals with the power of the Central Government or any designated officer to suspend any passport, if the passport is likely to be impounded and it is also necessary in the public interest to do so. However, such suspension shall not be for a period exceeding four months. But the period may be extended further by virtue of the proviso to sub-section (1) of Section 10A.

16. A careful look at the entire scheme of the Act would show that the provisions of the Passport Act basically deal with three types of issues such as (1) issue or refusal to issue passports (2) Variation, impounding or revocation of passports and (3) suspension of passports. It is interesting to note that no provision in the Act deals with the renewal of passport. Even Section 8 which deals with extension of the period of passport, covers only cases where a passport is issued for a shorter period than the prescribed period under Section 7. Therefore once a passport expires, upon the expiry of the normal duration stipulated in terms of Section 7 of the Act, a person may have to apply for renewal or extension or re-issue, by whatever name it is called. But that application will be considered only in terms of Section 5. In other words, the terms renewal, extension or re-issue, of a passport after the expiry of the normal period as originally prescribed, should be construed only the issue of passport.