Bokaro (Jharkhand) v. The State of Jharkhand
Case Details
1 Cr.M.P. No.2904 of 2022 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI Cr.M.P. No. 2904 of 2022 Dr. Ananjay Kumar Shrivastava @ Dr. A.K. Srivastava, aged about 50 years, s/o Sri Shatrughan Prasad, resident of Qr. No. C/4, D.V.C. Colony, C.T.P.S. Chandrapura, P.O. & P.S.-Chandrapura, Dist.- Bokaro (Jharkhand) .... Petitioner Versus The State of Jharkhand …. Opp. Party P R E S E N T
Legal Reasoning
HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE ANIL KUMAR CHOUDHARY ….. For the Petitioner For the State : Mr. Mukesh Kumar Kumar, Advocate : Mr. Bhola Nath Ojha, Addl. P.P. ….. By the Court:- 1. 2. Heard the parties. This criminal miscellaneous petition has been filed invoking the jurisdiction of this Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. with a prayer for setting aside the order dated 06.06.2022 passed by the court of learned S.D.J.M., Bermo at Tenughat in Dugda P.S. Case No. 08 of 2016, corresponding to G.R. No. 122 of 2016 in Cri. Misc. Petition No. 1703 of 2022 by which issuance of N.O.C. in respect of renewal/re-issuance of the petitioner’s passport has not been allowed. 3. The brief facts of the case is that the petitioner is an accused of the said case and cognizance has been taken against him for having committed the offences punishable under Sections 2 Cr.M.P. No.2904 of 2022 304A/34 of Indian Penal Code and on 06.06.2022, in the learned trial court, the petitioner filed a petition under Section 258 of Code of Criminal Procedure. The case was fixed for hearing on the said petition. 4. The learned S.D.J.M., Bermo at Tenughat in view of the fact that Cr.M.P. No. 2620 of 2021 and Cr.M.P. No. 2567 of 2021 is pending before this Court, thought it not fit to grant the prayer for issuance of no objection certificate in favour of the petitioner for renewal/ re-issuance of the said passport from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Regional Passport Office, Ranchi and rejected the same. 5. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner referring to Section 6 (2) (f) of the Passport Act, 1967 which reads as under:- 6. (2) Subject to the other provisions of this Act, the passport authority shall refuse to issue a passport or travel document for visiting any foreign country under clause (c) of sub- section (2) of Section 5 on any one or more of the following grounds, and on no other ground, namely:— (a)xxxx (b)xxxx (c)xxxx (d)xxxx (e)xxxx (f) that proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by the applicant are pending before a criminal court in India; as well as Section 22 of the said Act which reads as under:- 22. Power to exempt.—Where the Central Government is of the opinion that it is necessary or expedient in the public interest so to do, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette and subject to such conditions, if any, as it may specify in the notification,— (a) exempt any person or class of persons from the operation of all or any of the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder; and (b) as often as may be, cancel any such notification and again subject, by a like notification, the person or class of persons to the operation of such provisions. 3 Cr.M.P. No.2904 of 2022 and also the notification dated 25.08.1993 G.S.R. (E) No. 570 (E) which reads as under:- In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of Section 22 of the Passports Act, 1967 (15 of 1967) and in supersession of the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of External Affairs No. G.S.R. 298(E), dated the 14th April, 1976, the Central Government, being of the opinion that it is necessary in public interest to do so, hereby exempts citizens of India against whom proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by them are pending before a criminal court in India and who produce orders from the court concerned permitting them to depart from India, from the operation of the provisions of clause (f) of sub-section (2) of Section 6 of the said Act, subject to the following conditions, namely:— (a) the passport to be issued to every such citizen shall be issued— (i) for the period specified in order of the court referred to above, if the court specified a period for which the passport has to be issued; or (ii) if no period either for the issue of the passport or for the travel abroad is specified in such order, the passport shall be issued for a period of one year; (iii) if such order gives permission to travel abroad for a period less than one year, but does not specify the period of validity of the passport, the passport shall be issued for one year; or (iv) if such order gives permission to travel abroad for a period exceeding one year, and does not specify the validity of the passport, then the passport shall be issued for the period of travel abroad specified in the order. (b) any passport issued in terms of (a)(ii) and (a)(iii) above can be further renewed for one year at a time, provided the applicant has not travelled abroad for the period sanctioned by the court; and provided further that, in the meantime, the order of the court is not cancelled or modified; (c) any passport issued in terms of (a)(i) above can be further renewed only on the basis of a fresh court order specifying a further period of validity of the passport or specifying a period for travel abroad; 4 Cr.M.P. No.2904 of 2022 (d) the said citizen shall give an undertaking in writing to the passport-issuing authority that he shall, if required by the court concerned, appear before it at any time during the continuance in force of the passport so issued. (Emphasis supplied) that in exercise of the power conferred by clause (a) of Section 22 of Passport Act, 1967, the Central Government being of the opinion that it is necessary in the public interest to do so, has, exempted citizens of India against whom proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have committed by them are pending before a criminal court in India, if such citizens produce orders from the court concerned, permitting them to depart from India; from the operation of provisions of clause (f) of sub-section 6 of Passport Act, 1967. 6. On being asked by this Court as to when the petitioner intend to go and to which country and for which period, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that he has no such information or proposal. 7. But it is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that the order dated 06.06.2022 passed by the court of learned S.D.J.M., Bermo at Tenughat in Dugda P.S. Case No. 08 of 2016, corresponding to G.R. No. 122 of 2016 in Cri. Misc. Petition No. 1703 of 2022 be quashed. 8. Having heard the submissions made at the bar and after going through the materials in the record, it is pertinent to mention here that from the notification, the copy of which placed by the learned counsel for the petitioner is already mentioned above in this judgment, it is apparent that the Court may in appropriate cases permit the petitioner to depart from India but the notification does 5 Cr.M.P. No.2904 of 2022 not provide for according of no objection certificate for granting of passport. 9. Under such circumstances, this Court does not want to interfere with the order dated 06.06.2022 passed by the court of learned S.D.J.M., Bermo at Tenughat in Dugda P.S. Case No. 08 of 2016, corresponding to G.R. No. 122 of 2016 in Cri. Misc. Petition No. 1703 of 2022; as there being no provision to grant no objection certificate, rejection of such prayer cannot be termed illegal. 10. Under the fact and circumstances of this case this criminal miscellaneous petition is disposed of with an observation that in case, the petitioner has any specific and definite proposal to depart from India for any specific purpose; then the petitioner may file an application before the learned trial court with a prayer for permitting him to depart from India and in case, such prayer is made before the learned trial court, the learned trial court may consider the same in view of the provision of the notification G.S.R. 570 (E) dated 25.08.1993. High Court of Jharkhand, Ranchi Dated the 27th June, 2023 AFR/Sonu-Gunjan/- (Anil Kumar Choudhary, J.)