Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court directed BJP’s Medak MP Madhavaneni Raghunandan Rao to submit the status of the pending criminal cases against him.
Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya directed him to file the memo in this regard by January 7, while dealing with his petition complaining against Hyderabad passport authorities in not renewing or re-issuing his passport.
The passport authorities refused to renew the passport on the ground that 29 criminal cases were pending against him, which was brought to the notice of the court by the passport authorities. He reportedly did not disclose four criminal cases in his application for renewal.
The police inquiry report was adverse to Rao on the pending criminal cases. The passport officer issued him a show cause notice in April. As there was no reply, the passport officials rejected his renewal application.
Rao agreed that there was a mistake on his part in not informing the officials about the four criminal cases that were pending trial. He also submitted that he could not answer to the notices due to his preoccupation with election work. He clarified that he had written to the passport officials in June informing them about the 29 cases.
“All the details of these were duly informed to the Election Commission,” he said.
Issue passport to single parent’s minor daughter, passport office directed
The Telangana High Court faulted the regional passport authority of Hyderabad for insisting on single parents to get a court order or consent of the other parent to issue a passport to minor children, who are in the custody of the single parent.
Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya of the High Court asked how the authorities were insisting on court permission from single parents, when the guidelines under Column 16 in Section III under the 1980 Rules provided for cases where a single parent can make application for the minor`s passport.
The judge was dealing with a petition filed by a four-year-old minor girl, represented by her mother, challenging the decision of the passport authorities that she must get permission of the court or consent from the child’s father to be issued a passport. According to the petition, the child’s father had secured US citizenship and was not in touch with her.
Pulling up the authorities in demanding such conditions, the judge recalled the Clause 4.8 of the Guidelines relating to issue of passports framed under The Passports Act, 1967, which clearly says “In case one married parent has terminated the relationship with the other parent without a formal divorce, a declaration in the format of Annexure ‘C’ may be accepted from the parent having the custody of the child.”
Justice Bhattacharya also cited the judgment passed by a coordinate bench of the Telangana High Court in L. Deepika Vs. Union of India, on the point that a single parent cannot be asked to follow unreasonable requirements for issue of passport to the minor child, which was contrary to The Passports Act, 1967 (the 1967 Act) and the 1980 Rules.
The court directed the passport authorities to issue the passport to the petitioner minor girl without insisting on any permissions or consents.
