CHENNAI: Madras high court has ordered the regional passport authority to issue a passport with a validity of 10 years to Congress leader and Sivaganga MP Karti P Chidambaram.
Justice Anita Sumanth issued the directions on Thursday, on a plea moved by Karti challenging the decision of the authorities refusing to renew his passport for more than a year. Representing the petitioner, senior advocate P Wilson submitted that the Regional Passport Authority had stated that his passport, which was due to expire on Mar 5, would be renewed for only one year. The authority applied the notification of the union government dated Aug 25, 1993, since he was facing criminal charges.
“There was no material evidence to prove that the petitioner was not entitled to hold a 10-year validity passport. False cases were slapped against the petitioner due to political motives, and as a Parliamentarian, he had to be with the people to perform his duties and function,” Wilson said.
There was no intention to leave the country endlessly, and he had to take permission to leave the country from the criminal court concerned each time. Therefore, his travel was regulated by the court, and travelling abroad had nothing to do with the validity period of passport, he added. The petitioner further added that every time he had scrupulously complied with the conditions of the court by returning back to India, and the court itself had recorded his good conduct in one of its orders. Therefore, like any other citizen of this country, Karti was entitled to hold a 10-year validity regular passport, argued Wilson. The right to travel is a fundamental right and to deny the same without any valid reasons would violate the same, he said.
