Police must complete verification of passport applications within 4 weeks: Allahabad High Court

“Delaying in police verification, which is an essential exercise for an accused, is creating hurdle in realization of the right to travel, specially in cases where reissuance of the passport is for a duration of one year”, the court said.

The court passed this direction while dealing with a plea seeking re-issuance of the passport of one Rahimuddin.

Rahimuddin had approached the court previously seeking a direction for issuance of a passport in his favour, as his application remained pending before the passport office due to one criminal case against him.

The Court had disposed of that petition while directing him to seek a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the competent criminal court. Thereafter, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Pilibhit, granted him the NOC approval and consequently, a passport was issued to him with one-year validity.

Rahimuddin approached the High Court seeking re-issuance of his passport with ten-year validity.

The counsel for Rahimuddin submitted that in view of the permission granted by the competent court, the passport of the petitioner should be renewed for a period of ten years.

The court held that a passport or its renewal for ten years cannot be demanded as a matter of right.

The court noted that the NOC granted by the CJM did not specify the duration for which the passport was to be issued.

The court observed that if the period is not stated in the order, the passport can be issued for one year at a time and the said period can be extended through renewal as per law, provided that the applicant has not yet travelled abroad during the court-sanctioned period and that the court’s order has not been modified or revoked in the meantime.

The court held that “in the present case we do not find any justification to issue further direction at this stage to extend period of passport beyond 19.1.2026. However, a person like petitioner can repeatedly apply for renewal of passport soon after its expiry or even before, in accordance with relevant provisions of law as discussed above”.

The court found that in recent times, it was flooded with petitions seeking direction to the passport office to dispose of pending applications for passport issuance or its renewal. The court noted that the passport seekers do not wait for a notice from the passport office and directly approach the court for a direction.

The Court said that if the disposal of passport application is delayed, applicants should first reply to the notice. The court further added that if the applicant finds that their application for passport has remained pending for their implication in a criminal case, they should first apply for no objection/sanction/approval from the court concerned, police or criminal law court, as the case may be.

The court also directed the passport offices to not linger on the applications as the applicant may urgently require the passport.

The court, therefore, directed that “the concerned Regional Passport Officer, in all circumstances where passport cannot be issued, must inform the applicant regarding it within a month of submission of passport application and as soon as proper no-objection/sanction/approval is obtained and submitted, should dispose of passport application finally within a further period of a month. The police in cases of application submitted for passport must submit its report within four weeks without undue delay.”