Prashant Bhushan moves Delhi HC over passport hitch

NEW DELHI: Activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan has moved the Delhi HC challenging the authorities’ decision to issue him a passport with validity of one year instead of the usual 10 years.

The passport office cited a pending criminal case against him for cutting short the validity. The case was filed during a programme organised by his NGO, IAC, to protest alleged irregularities in coal block allocations.

As per authorities, for 10-year passport, he needs to first get a no-objection certificate from the court before which the criminal case was pending.

Bhushan claimed though the court had issued an NOC, the authorities kept his application pending merely because a criminal case was pending against him.