HC rejects Mufti’s plea for passport photo with skullcap

“The petitioner has also not placed any material before the court to show that his personal laws/ customs/ usages prohibit him from removing his cap,” the court said while noting certain other shortcomings in Haque’s petition Haque had approached the Passport Sewa Kendra, Varanasi, in November last year for a passport. While getting photographed, he insisted on wearing the skullcap stating that he was a “religious man and was not used to doing any work without his cap on”.

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The passport official, however, told the Mufti that cannot be photographed, until he removed the skullcap.

The Mufti then moved an application with the Lucknow Passport Office under the Right to Information Act seeking information whether taking off the cap was mandatory. The RTI reply said that a person can wear a cap, but his face should be clearly visible in the photograph.

Haque then wrote to the Lucknow passport office seeking exemption from removing skullcap for the photograph.But when no decision was taken, he approached the Allahabad High Court.

As the matter came up for hearing, the Additional Solicitor General of India, Gyan Prakash, made two submissions before the court. The  first was that the petitioner had not submitted any material before the court to show that his religious customs or personal laws prevented him from taking off the skullcap for the purposes of a photograph. Secondly, the ASGI brought to the notice of the court that at the stage of filing of application, the Mufti had indeed got himself photographed without the skullcap.

So, the ASGI contended, that essentially, the relief being sought was that his photograph wearing the skullcap should be used in the application and the one without it be removed. The ASGI pointed out that this amounted to concealment of material facts before the court.

Expressing displeasure over the fact that “the petitioner has not mentioned these facts in the writ petition”, the court dismissed the petition pointing out that he “has not placed any material before the court to show that his personal laws/customs/usages prohibit him from removing his cap”.

“The averments made in the writ petition give an impression that the petitioner wanted that his photograph should be taken with skullcap,” the court said.