CHANDIGARH: In the writ pelt ion filed by Simranjit Singh Mann, justices A, P. Chaudhary and H. K. Sandhu, of Punjab and Haryana High Count, recently, directed the External Affairs Ministry and Regional Passport Office, at Chandigarh to provide grounds for rejecting Mann’s application for grant of passport within one month. The court further ordered that the appeal of Mann, when filed be decided within two months from the date of filing Ranjan Lakhanpal and Atul Lakhanpal, Counsel for Mann contended that he applied for passport way back month. Accordingly, the application was rejected on August 25, 1993. An appeal was filed before the Central Government but, the same was not entertained on the ground that the grounds of rejection are not available. The Counsel for Mann applied for grounds before the Regional Passport Office. Chandigarh and he received a re- ply vide letter of November 4, 1993 stating that the grounds are not available and as and when these are made available, the same shall be supplied to him. In spite of the fact that eight months have passed, the grounds have not been made available till date. The only inference from the circumstances that can be drawn is that there are no grounds available with the Central Government while rejecting Mann’s passport.
After hearing the counsel, the division bench gave the above directions.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 5, 1994
