A few years ago, my wife filed 498A against me and my family members. Police came to the residence and asked me for my passport. Out of fear, I handover over and later I was taken to the Police Station and asked to sign 41A CRPC notice. After that incidence, my wife lived with me, and whenever I ask her for my passport, she has no answer for the same. Recently, she left my home and started staying with her parents. I filed for quashing of the same FIR and concerned chargesheet and proceedings are stayed by the High Court. How do I get my original passport back? Was Police allowed to take my passport? I can confirm from the Police officer that my passport is in the court. How can a court keep anyone's passport? There is no mentioning of passport in the FIR. Please advise.
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You have to seek court orders to direct police to return your passport
under the passport act only the passport authorities have power to impound passport
the provisions of special act over rides provisions of criminal procedure code which is general law
police have no authority to seize your passport
Is it possible to directly approach High Court via Writ or any other Petition rather than going to the Lower Court? If in case I approach the lower court and lower court rejects my release of passport, I will have to go to High Court and challenge the same. Please advise.
You can file writ petition in HC to direct poluce to reform your passport
Court and police has every power to impound the passport etc. No WRIT is maintainable in such case as police snd court both have power to seize the passport File application in trial court for release of passport on "Superdari".
Dear Client,
Police Taking Your Passport: In certain circumstances, the police may have the authority to temporarily seize your passport as part of their investigation. However, the circumstances under which this can be done may vary depending on the sensitive of the case.
Recovering Your Passport: To retrieve your passport, you should follow the legal process in your jurisdiction. Typically, you would need to approach the court that has your passport and request its return. If the court has your passport as evidence related to the 498A case, you may need to seek the court's permission for its release.
Approaching the High Court: In many cases, you may need to approach the lower court first to request the return of your passport. If the lower court rejects your request, you can then consider approaching the High Court through a writ or appropriate legal procedure.
FIR and Passport: If there is no mention of your passport in the FIR (First Information Report), it may be necessary to demonstrate that the passport is unrelated to the criminal case and should be returned to you.
- Under section 102 of CrPC , police has power to seize the document that is to take possession of the thing for the moment and not to retain it for longer periods of time, and hence, the police cannot retain your passport
- You can move an application for superdari before the magistrate in the lower court for releasing the passport.
- Writ petition is not maintainable and it will take longer time
The police have no powers to seize your passport.
You could have refused to handover the same, they cannot do anything about.
In fact the court also do not have any powers to impound or forcibly obtain your passport without any valid reason.
You write tot he top police officer of the city about this and ask him to intervene and advise the concerned police to return the passport, if it is not effective then you can file a petition before high court seeking direction to the concerned police to return the passport.
You can file a petition before high court directly seeking direction to the concerned authority including the trial court to release the passport and hand it over to you. You can file a petition under section 482 cr.p.c. for this purpose.
You can file an application to court to get the same back
