Centre defends giving Prashant Bhushan 1-year passport

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday defended its stand to issue limited validity passport to advocate and Aam Aadmi Party member Prashant Bhushan, saying he has criminal cases pending against him.

Submitting that there is “no malafide intention“ in issuing Bhushan a passport with a year's validity instead of 10 years, as is the norm, the government maintained that it is following the rulebook.In an affidavit, the ministry of external affairs said that the action to issue a one-year passport fully conforms to the prevailing provisions of an August 25, 1993, notification. Bhushan has challenged the government's refusal to reissue him a passport with full validity.

“The Passport Authority , despite the fact that criminal cases were pending against the petitioner (Bhushan), never denied the passport facility to him and also at any point of time had no intention to impede, hamper or confine his movements,“ the affidavit says.

Bhushan alleged that merely because a few criminal cases, related to the charge of being part of unlawful assembly , are pending against him, the government denied him a passport with full validity.

Bhushan applied for reissue of passport in 2014. The government informed him that in order to get his passport renewed, he needs to first obtain a no objection certificate (NOC) from the court where criminal cases are pending against him.Though the metropolitan magistrate at Patiala House Courts granted him an NOC, he did not specify the duration of validity of the passport, which led to Bhushan being issued the passport on September 12, 2014--valid only till September 11, 2015.

The government said Bhushan's request for the reissue of the passport with full validity cannot be acceded to unless the court concerned issues a fresh order in this regard.