- As per Section 6(2) (f) of the Passports Act, 1967, the passport authority shall refuse to issue a passport or travel document for visiting any foreign country, if proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by the applicant are pending before a criminal court in India.
- Further, under Section 12(1) (B) of Passport Act, in case the applicant does not disclose correct information that a case is pending before the court, then there is penalty for Rs.2500/- for the offence of suppression of information.
- However, the Delhi high court has said that the passport authority cannot impose penalty on a person who has unknowingly produced false information while applying for the document, and before penalizing an applicant it has to be proved that the person has knowingly provided false information while applying for passport.
- Further, the Kerala High Court directed a person , to appear before the Passport authority in terms of show cause notice issued to him, and to pay the compounding fee; and to further clarify in writing, as to why he had not brought the information regarding the pendency of the criminal case to their notice, and the Passport Authority was directed to consider the application and take an appropriate decision thereon, within a period of one month.
- Hence, you should write an application before the Passport officer after mentioning the facts as you mentioned above , and thereby request to issue the passport and not impound the same,