Sudhakar Rathinam v. The Regional Passport Officer
MADRAS HIGH COURT (MADURAI BENCH) – W.P.(MD)No.7963 of 2025 and W.M.P.(MD)No.6002 of 2025 – Decided 24.03.2025 – Coram: THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE VIVEK KUMAR SINGH
Case brief
What is this about?
Keywords: show cause notice Proceeding No.SCN/318889819/24 dated 07.08.2024; Regional Passport Officer Madurai; Passport No.Y4379498; Crime No.187 of 2020; Section 379 of I.P.C.; charge sheet C.C.No.27 of 2022; Judicial Magistrate Cheranmahadevi Tirunelveli; Pathamadai Police Station; liberty to move trial Court; dispose within three weeks; right to travel abroad is a fundamental right; extraordinary circumstances; restrict passport validity; stipulate conditions so prosecution not stalled; absence from India; Section 228 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023; special Vakalat; petitionmentioned application; Sudhakar Rathinam; Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus; Article 226 of the Constitution of India; W.P.(MD)No.7963 of 2025; W.M.P.(MD)No.6002 of 2025; decided 24.03.2025; Justice Vivek Kumar Singh; no precedents cited.
What did the court decide?
Writ Petition disposed of (no order as to costs; connected Miscellaneous Petition W.M.P.(MD)No.6002 of 2025 closed). Liberty given to the petitioner to move the trial Court for the relief sought; the trial Court is to number and dispose of such petition within three weeks, bearing in mind the fundamental right to travel abroad and the petitioner's career, denying the relief only for extraordinary circumstances, restricting passport validity, and stipulating conditions (and, if necessary, a Section 228 BNSS 2023 application with special Vakalat) to ensure the prosecution is not stalled; thereafter the petitioner is to approach the jurisdictional regional passport officer, who shall process the petitionmentioned application in terms of the trial Court's order.