Delhi High Court restores Lalit Modi’s passport
The court setting aside the order revoking Mr Modi’s passport
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-08-28 03:29 GMT
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday directed that former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi’s passport be restored to him, paving the way for his return to India. Mr Modi has been living in London for the past few years.The court, setting aside the order revoking Mr Modi’s passport, made it clear it was not expressing any opinion on alleged violations by him of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
A bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Vibhu Bakhru said the material taken into consideration while revoking his passport were “extraneous and irrelevant.” It said the order revoking Mr Modi’s passport was invalid, and violated his fundamental rights under Article 19. Mr Modi was in the UK when his passport was cancelled by the government in March 2011, and continued to stay there.
“Since there is a specific procedure and there are specific statutory provisions for default in non-compliance with summonses under FEMA itself read with relevant provisions of the Income-tax Act and the Civil Procedure Code, the revocation of the appellant’s passport for that so-called default (which is yet to be adjudicated upon), on the ground that it was in the interests of the general public, was not lawful,” the court said.
On January 16, 2013, Mr Modi’s plea challenging the orders revoking his passport passed by the Regional and Chief Passport Officers on March 3, 2011 and October 31, 2011 was dismissed by a single-judge bench of the high court.The court also said that the Single Judge, in the impugned order dated January 16, 2013, didn’t examine these aspects of the matter.
“If we assume that the appellant was not in the United Kingdom but in India, could the action of revocation of his passport be regarded as lawful?” said the bench.“In fact, would the Enforcement Directorate have requested the Regional Passport Officer for taking action under the Passports Act? We think not,” it added. The court also made an observation, “And, we must remember that the passport is essentially required for departure from India. The appellant is already in UK.”
Mr Modi was facing IPL related FEMA cases and was asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which he had refused to do. He infact chose to stay in the United Kingdom after which his passport was cancelled by the government. He has been living in England after the Mumbai Regional Passport Office revoked his passport in March 2011.