Headlines
No malafide intent in short-term passport to Prashant Bhushan'
New Delhi, March 16
The central government on
Monday told the Delhi High Court that it has "no malafide intention" in
issuing advocate Prashant Bhushan a passport with an year's validity
instead of the usual 10 years and the decision was taken as criminal
cases are pending against him.
The government told Justice Rajiv
Shakdher that the action to issue a short validity passport of one year
to Bhushan was completely in conformity with the prevailing provisions
of an August 25, 1993 notification.
Bhushan has challenged the government's refusal to reissue him a passport with full validity.
Filing
an affidavit, an under secretary in the ministry of external affairs,
said: "Passport Authority, despite the fact that criminal cases were
pending against the petitioner (Bhushan), had never denied the passport
facility to him and also at any point of time had no intention to
impede, hamper or confine the movement of the petitioner."
Bhushan
has contended that merely because a few criminal cases pertaining to
being part of an unlawful assembly are pending against him, the
government denied him a passport with full validity.
The
advocate, also a founding member of India Against Corruption (IAC), had
staged a protest in August 2012 against the coal scam. Though the
protest was non-violent, police had registered a few cases against IAC
members including Bhushan for participating in an assembly which was
declared unlawful. The cases are pending in Patiala House court here ,
the plea said.
Bhushan has also argued that the one-year
restriction on reissuing the passport is "arbitrary, unreasonable and
also discriminatory" and thus in violation of the constitution's article
14 (equality before law).
As per the plea, Bhushan had applied
for renewal/reissue of the passport to the regional passport office in
2014. The government had informed him that in order to get his passport
renewed, he needs to first obtain a no objection certificate (NOC) from
the court where criminal cases are pending against him.
Though
the metropolitan magistrate at Patiala House Courts granted him an NOC,
he did not specify the duration of validity of the passport, which led
to Bhushan being issued the passport on September 12, 2014 - valid only
till September 11, 2015.
The government said Bhushan's request
for the re-issue of the passport with full validity cannot be acceded to
unless the concerned court issues a fresh order in this regard.
The
government argued that as per the 1993 notification, a person with a
criminal case pending and who applies for the issue or reissue of a
passport, has to first obtain a NOC from the court where the case is
pending and if the court does not lay down any time period for renewal,
then a passport of only one year validity would be issued.
The court posted the matter for April 15.