Disposed

Nagendra Kumar Rastogi v. Union of India and 3 Others

Allahabad HC9 Sept 2019WRIC/25455/2019

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

Petitioner applied for a passport but received neither the document nor a rejection order. The court held that the Competent Authority must decide and pass an order under Section 5(2) of the Passport Act, 1967 within a reasonable time and directed them to do so within two months.

What did the court decide?

Direction to Competent Authority to pass an appropriate order under Section 5(2) of the Passport Act, 1967 within two months.

Nagendra Kumar Rastogi Vs Union of India… — Pension and Retirement Benefits | Allahabad HC (2019)

¶1

Court No. - 34

¶2

Case :- WRIT - C No. - 25455 of 2019

¶3

Petitioner :- Nagendra Kumar Rastogi Respondent :- Union Of India And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Surendra Mohan Mishra Counsel for Respondent :- Vijay Raj Pal,C.S.C., Ram Dular

¶4

Hon'ble Sudhir Agarwal,J. Hon'ble Rajeev Misra,J.

¶5

Heard Mr. Ram Dular, learned counsel for respondents. No one appears on behalf of petitioner.

¶6

Grievance of petitioner is that he has applied for passport, but neither passport has been issued nor any order has been passed by Competent Authority, rejecting application of petitioner.

¶7

Learned Counsel for Union of India was given time on 5.8.2019 to seek instructions in the matter. Mr. Ram Dular, learned counsel appearing for respondents states that he has received no instructions.

¶8

Section 5 (2) of Passport Act, 1967 (hereinafter referred to as "Act, 1967") provides that if an application is filed for passport etc, Passport Authority, after conducting an enquiry, if any, as it may consider necessary, shall, subject to other provisions of Act, 1967, by order in writing, issue passport or travel document as the case may be, or may refuse to issue passport. Sub-section 3 of Section 5 of Act 1967 also contemplates that where an order has been passed under clause 2 (c) of Sub-section (2), Competent Authority shall give a brief statement of its reasons for making such an order.

¶9

Above discussion shows that when an application is filed for passport etc., Competent Authority has to pass an order in writing. If he grants passport, it is different thing but if he refuses to grant passport, then section 5 (3) of Act 1967 contemplates that competent authority shall pass an order in writing giving reasons, maybe brief.

¶10

Grievance of petitioner is that neither passport has been issued nor any order has been communicated to him if Competent Authority has taken a decision to refuse application submitted by petitioner for issue of passport.

¶11

The statute imposes an obligation upon Competent Authority to pass an order and though no time has been mentioned in section 5 but when statutory obligation has been imposed with regard to passing of an order, Competent Authority has to exercise its power of passing such order within a reasonable time.

¶12

In the present case, application was submitted on 2nd February 2019 and fee was deposited and since then more than six months have passed, therefore, it cannot be said that six months is not a reasonable period in the case in hand.

¶13

In the result, we find it appropriate to dispose of this writ petition with a direction to Competent Authority to pass an appropriate order as contemplated under section 5 (2) of Act, 1967, within a period of two months from date of production of certified copy of this order.

¶14

Writ petition is, accordingly, disposed of.

¶15

Order Date :- 9.9.2019 Arshad

Nagendra Kumar Rastogi v. Union of India and 3 Others

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Nagendra Kumar Rastogi v. Union of India and 3 Others

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

What the court decided

A compact analysis

Issues for consideration

Statutes considered

Parties & counsel

Coram

Case details

Similar cases

Bheem Sen Yadav and 11 Others Vs State of U.P. and 13 Others

Apex Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine and Hospital Vs Union of India and 2 Others

Dinesh Kumar Vs University of Allahabad and 3 Others

M/S Narendra Traders Vs State of U.P. and 2 Others

Ram Nayan Dwivedi Vs Naval Dey Bharti and 2 Others

Neelam Widge Vs Dinesh Widge