The Gujarat High Court has ruled that a person facing a pending criminal case can have a passport renewed for the standard 10-year period, setting aside a lower court order that had limited the renewal to three years. The court has, however, retained a requirement that the applicant obtain prior permission from the trial court before travelling abroad.
Justice Mulchand Tyagi passed the order in a petition filed by Mohammed Iqbal Ganibhai Meghreji, an accused in a case before the Special CBI Court in Ahmedabad (Rural). The case involves allegations of cheating and criminal conspiracy, according to the report published by Gujarat Samachar – Ahmedabad.
Meghreji had sought permission for a 10-year passport renewal. The Special CBI Court had permitted renewal only for three years, prompting him to approach the High Court. His legal representatives told the court that he was 67 years old, travelled abroad frequently for business and had children settled overseas.
The petitioner’s submissions referred to earlier decisions of the Supreme Court and the Gujarat High Court. According to the report, the argument was that the mere pendency of a criminal case should not by itself result in a shorter passport validity period.
The High Court observed that when a regular passport is ordinarily renewed for 10 years, the trial court should also have permitted the applicant to seek renewal for the same period. It therefore modified the lower court’s order and permitted renewal of the passport for the full 10-year term. The court directed the passport office to act accordingly.
The Regional Passport Office had objected that the petitioner had not yet submitted a renewal application before the passport authorities and argued that the High Court petition was premature. The High Court rejected that objection. It noted that because the criminal case was pending, the petitioner could approach the passport authority only after obtaining permission from the competent court, making the petition maintainable at that stage.
The ruling does not remove the court’s control over the applicant’s international travel. The High Court specifically directed that the petitioner must obtain prior permission from the trial court before leaving India. The trial court may impose appropriate conditions in accordance with law when considering any request to travel abroad.
The order distinguishes between the validity period of a passport and permission to leave the country during pending criminal proceedings. While the passport may be renewed for 10 years, each proposed overseas journey remains subject to the trial court’s prior approval and any conditions imposed by it.
