STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has ruled that a person cannot be denied a passport merely because his relatives were involved in anti-national activities.
Justice M.A. Chowdhary, after hearing Adv BS Bali for the petitioner and DSGI Vishal Sharma for the UOI and Sr. AAG Monika Kohli for the UT, observed: “This court is of the considered opinion that there is no reason to not recommend the case of the petitioner for issuance of passport just for the involvement of his brother in militancy activities in the year 2011, when he was killed, and the listing of his father as an OGW (Over Ground Worker of a terror outfit) for grant of passport in his favour.”
The court allowed the petition filed by Mohammad Amir Malik, a diploma holder in engineering, who had applied for the issuance of a passport for travelling abroad to search for a job.
The passport-issuing authority cannot issue travel documents without a clearance from the additional director general of police (ADGP) in the CID.
Malik, a resident of Ramban, filed the petition as the CID headquarters did not give a clearance for the issuance of his passport for his slain brother’s militancy links.
“It should have been the activities of the petitioner, which should have formed the basis either for permitting or rejecting the request for issuance of a passport in his favour. The basis for not recommending the case of the petitioner for the issuance of a passport does not have any reasonable relation or nexus with the activities of the petitioner, as the same does not even remotely connect the petitioner with any activity which could be termed as prejudicial to the security, sovereignty and integrity of the state or the country,” the bench observed.
It directed the ADGP, CID to re-submit the report, “uninfluenced by the conduct or activities of the brother of the petitioner as well as his father”, to the regional passport officer within four weeks and said the latter shall consider the petitioner’s case on the ADGP’s report and pass an appropriate order in his favour within two weeks thereafter.