SRINAGAR, Feb 20: Justice Javed Iqbal Wani held that the registration of FIR and pending investigation does not bar the passport issuing authority to issue or renew the passport of a person & unless the investigation is completed and the chargesheet in the FIR is submitted before the court of law.
Court added that it is not in dispute that the petitioner was denied the issuance of passport on account of his alleged involvement in a criminal case being FIR No. FIRs 41/2020 and 02/2020 wherein no charge sheet had been filed. It is not in dispute that in the instant case as well, the petitioner is alleged to have been involved in both the FIRs the investigation is stated to have not been concluded and no charge sheet laid before the competent court of law.
The case is that the one Mr Mohammad Abbas Lone retired on superannuation from a gazetted post in Jammu Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation, in the year 2020, while he was in service and working as Dy. General Manager of Unit 10 of Kupwara, a FIR was registered by prosecution against the officials of the Unit 10 under Sections 468, 471, 120-B, IPC, read with Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and despite undertaking investigation in the FIR, no charge sheet was laid down before any competent court of law and that in connection with the investigation of the FIR, his bank account came to be frozen by the investigating agency, which subsequently came to be defreezed by the competent court, upon an application filed by the petitioner.
He pleaded that he was holding a passport/travel document issued in his favour and had applied for its renewal before its date of expiry on December 26, 2024, before the passport officer Srinagar through online mode but later he came to know on the official website that his case for reissuance of passport/travel document has been halted on account of the registration of FIR No.02/2020, as security clearance/verification has not been accorded for reissuance of the passport in his favour.
The petition was opposed by the passport as well as police authorities on the ground that the passport and travel document in his favour could not be issued on account of the verification report received from the Director General of Police, (CID), owing to the involvement of the petitioner in FIRs both registered with Police Station Crime Branch.
The court allowed the plea of Mohammad Abbas Lone with the direction to the authorities to accord consideration to the case of the petitioner-Lone for grant of passport/travel document, notwithstanding his alleged involvement in FIRs.
The court however, before such consideration of issuance of passport in favour of petitioner-Lone said the authority concerned shall re-verify as to whether a final report or charge sheet has been laid in the FIRs’ in question in which he is alleged to be involved before any competent court of law.
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