‘Courts can’t impound passport as bail condition’: Madras High Court says only one authority can

Bail condition

• The petitioner was booked over offences under sections 294(b) (singing or uttering obscene song or words at/near a public place), 417 (cheating) and 506(i) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
• He was arrested in December 2025 and later granted bail in January 2026.
• Subsequently, the sessions court modified the bail conditions, directing him not to leave India without prior permission, to surrender his passport before the jurisdictional magistrate, and to mark his presence before the police every week.
• Challenging these conditions, the petitioner argued that the direction to surrender his passport violated his fundamental rights under Article 21 (protection of life and liberty) of the Constitution and was beyond the powers of the sessions court.
• He contended that under the Passports Act, only designated passport authorities are empowered to impound or take custody of a passport.

State counsel objects

• Opposing the plea, the government advocate appearing for the state said that, considering the gravity of the offence, the sessions court directed the petitioner to surrender the passport before the concerned jurisdictional magistrate court.
• He argued that the sessions court imposed the condition to secure the petitioner’s presence.

‘Special law prevails over general’

• The Madras High Court, relying on various precedents, noted that courts can impound any document or thing other than a passport.
• The court may, if it thinks fit, impound any document or thing produced before it under Section 104 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the high court said, adding that the provision is only applicable to documents other than a passport.
• The Madras High Court further observed that the Passports Act is a special legislation which prevails over a general law, such as the CrPC.
• Therefore, impounding of a passport cannot be done by the court under CrPC Section 104 though it can impound any other document or thing.
• The court noted that the sessions court had imposed the condition of surrendering the passport, which was not in accordance with the law.
• Accordingly, the Madras High Court set aside the bail condition requiring surrender of the passport, while retaining the other bail conditions, including restrictions on travel abroad and the requirement to report to the police periodically.