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2006 DIGILAW 1570 (DEL)

MOIZ AHMAD KHAN v. STATE (GOVT. OF NCT OF DELHI)

2006-09-06

S.N.AGGARWAL

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S. N. AGGARWAL, J. ( 1 ) A case under Section 12 of the Passport Act was registered against the petitioner vide FIR No. 482/2006 with Police Station IGI Airport. This case was registered against him when during the night intervening 31. 07. 2006 and 01. 08. 2006, he was checked by the Immigration people at the airport and pages 3, 4, 33 and 34 of his passport were found missing. The petitioner has alleged that he had no hand in the missing of the pages from his passport. He had earlier filed a writ petition being WP (Crl.) No. 1790/2006 for quashing of the aforementioned case registered against him but the said writ petition was dismissed on merits vide order passed by this Court on 17. 08. 2006. The petitioner has now filed this writ petition with the following prayer:-"issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction thereby directing the SHO to release the passport of the petitioner being No. E-0273462 to enable the petitioner to travel and to join duty at Canada or alternatively if this Hon'ble Court feels that the passport in question cannot be released then issue a direction to the Respondent No. 2 to issue fresh passport, in the interest of justice. " ( 2 ) THE learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents has contended that the original passport impounded by the Immigration people cannot be returned to the petitioner as it is a case property and would be required at the time of trial of the case against the petitioner. The learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that in case original passport of the petitioner cannot be returned to him, then directions be given to respondent No. 2 to issue a fresh passport to the petitioner to enable him to travel to Canada where he is gainfully employed. The learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that in case original passport of the petitioner cannot be returned to him, then directions be given to respondent No. 2 to issue a fresh passport to the petitioner to enable him to travel to Canada where he is gainfully employed. ( 3 ) HAVING regard to the facts and circumstances of the case and also keeping in view the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties, the respondent No. 2 is directed that if the petitioner applies to the concerned regional Passport Authorities for grant of a fresh passport in view of his existing passport having been retained by the police in the aforementioned case registered against him, the said request shall be considered within a period of two weeks from the date of making the request and a fresh passport be issued to him, if the same is permissible in accordance with the provisions of the Indian passport Act. This is subject to the condition of petitioner's giving an undertaking before the Registrar General of this Court that he shall make himself available during the trial of the case registered against him vide aforementioned FIR and that the petitioner shall also furnish a surety to the satisfaction of the Registrar General in the sum of Rs. 25,000. 00. An authenticated copy of the original passport of the petitioner impounded in the case be supplied by the Investigating Officer to the petitioner during the course of the day today itself. In view of the above, this writ petition is disposed of.