passport; (c)
under the Indian Passport Act, re-entering India without a
passport is penalized. The deprivation of personal liberty
in the refusal ... denied a passport be,cause, factually, a passport is a
necessary condition for travel abroad and the Government, by
withholding the passport, can effectively deprive
which Section 10(3)(c) of the Passport Act, 1967 authorises the passport authority to impound a passport "in the interests of the general ... does not provide for a hearing to the holder of the passport before the passport is impounded;
(3) Section 10(3)(c) is violative of Article
Refusal of passports, travel documents, etc.-
(1) Subject to the other provisions of this Act, the
passport authority shall refuse to make an
endorsement ... issue was
made after the original passport had expired is also
misplaced. The Passports Act contemplates passports that
“continue in force” for a prescribed period
Articles 14 , 19(1) (a) (b) &
21-- Grounds for refusing to grant passport--Whether the
power to impound passport arbitrary--"in general public ... judicial scrutiny for ascertaining
their nexus with the order impounding the passport, the
refusal to disclose the reasons would also be open to the
scrutiny
Passports Act, 1967 , there was no law regulating the right to
travel abroad as a result of which the order of the Passport Officer refusing
reversed the order of
the learned Special Judge and refused to release the passport to the appellant.
Aggrieved against the order of the High Court ... abroad and that was the reason
why the order of the Passport Officer refusing to issue passport to the
petitioner in Satwant Singh
example, in
cases of preventive detention, violation of free speech, externment,
refusal of passport etc., the impugned action is quashed, declared illegal
and violative
there
may be neither prerogative nor power is the
grant and refusal of passports, which has
been claimed to be wholly within the
prerogative
impound a passport in the interests of
the general public. But an order made by the
Passport Authority impounding a passport is
subject to judicial ... impounding a
passport……”
45. “……..We, however, wish to utter a word of
caution to the Passport Authority while exercising the
power of refusing or impounding
concurring but
different opinion held that an order impounding a
passport is a quasi-judicial decision (Para 34, page
612). The learned Chief Justice also ... concurring but a separate opinion also held
that refusal to disclose reasons for impounding a
passport is an exercise of an exceptional nature
