Pending Cases No Bar to Passport Renewal: Rajasthan HC

Pending Criminal Cases Without Conviction No Ground to Block Passport Renewal: Rajasthan High Court

Published: 12 September 2026 · NyayVidhan

The Rajasthan High Court set aside a Kota Chief Judicial Magistrate's refusal to issue a no-objection certificate for passport renewal to an accused facing 23 criminal cases, none ending in conviction. Stopping renewal, and so travel abroad, merely because criminal cases are pending violates Article 21, it held, and the passport authority must decide a fresh renewal application under Section 5 of the Passports Act within 30 days (paras 10-11).

Key holdings

Pending criminal cases, with no conviction in any of them, cannot by themselves block passport renewal (para 10).

Stopping renewal on that ground bars travel abroad and violates Article 21 of the Constitution (para 10).

The Court relied on GSR 570(E) and the Telangana High Court ruling in Sannith Reddy Mandhadi v. Union of India (paras 8-10).

The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kota, order of 08.04.2024 was set aside (para 11).

On a fresh application, the authority must decide renewal under Section 5 of the Passports Act within 30 days (para 11).

Judgment digest by NyayVidhan: a summary of the court's judgment, not its text. The judgment itself is the authoritative version.

Brief Facts

The petitioner, an accused before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kota, sought a no-objection certificate to renew his passport; on 08.04.2024 the court refused it because 23 cases were pending against him (paras 1-2). A charge-sheet had been filed against him under Sections 420, 406, 467, 468, 471 and 120B IPC, and the 23 other cases were said to concern largely similar acts; none had concluded, and he had been convicted in none (para 6). In his petition under Section 528 BNSS he said his son and daughter live abroad and that barring travel without just grounds violated his liberty (para 2). The Public Prosecutor accepted that no trial had ended and there was no conviction (para 4).

Court's Findings

The Court set out Section 6(2) of the Passports Act, 1967, including clause (f) on pending criminal proceedings (para 7), and the Central Government's notification GSR 570(E) of 28.06.1993, which exempts accused persons who produce a court order permitting them to leave India from clause (f) (para 8). It extracted paragraphs 7 to 12 of the Telangana High Court's order in Sannith Reddy Mandhadi v. Union of India, which draws on Supreme Court and High Court rulings on the presumption of innocence and the right to travel abroad (para 9). Applying these provisions and principles, it found that the petitioner had not been convicted in any case and all the cases were pending, and held that stopping passport renewal, and so barring a person from going abroad, only because criminal cases are pending violates Article 21 of the Constitution (para 10). It noted that he wished to visit his son and daughter abroad, that in view of Section 6(2)(e) renewal could not be withheld for pending cases, and that the Public Prosecutor had shown no other ground; the magistrate's order therefore deserved to be set aside (para 10).

Legal Principle

Pending criminal cases, without a conviction in any of them, are not by themselves a ground to stop the renewal of an accused person's passport; doing so curtails the right to go abroad and violates Article 21. The passport authority must decide the renewal under the Passports Act, unaffected by the refusal (paras 10-11).

Precedents Relied Upon

Sannith Reddy Mandhadi v. The Union of India & Another 2024 SCC OnLine TS 767
Relied Upon Discussed at ¶ 3, 9
Telangana High Court (order of 26.02.2024, paras 7-12 extracted): pendency of criminal cases is not a ground to refuse renewal of a passport; the right to travel abroad cannot be taken away except by just, fair and reasonable procedure; GSR 570(E) places the issue and validity of the passport under the control of the court.
Balkaran Singh v. State of Rajasthan S.B. Criminal Misc.(Pet.) No. 7824/2022, order dated 21.11.2022
Referred To Discussed at ¶ 3
Rajasthan High Court order cited by the petitioner in support of passport renewal.
Anil Wadhwa v. State of Rajasthan S.B. Criminal Misc.(Pet.) No. 9110/2022, order dated 07.07.2023
Referred To Discussed at ¶ 3
Rajasthan High Court order cited by the petitioner in support of passport renewal.

View all precedents (4)

Nareshant Sharma v. State of Rajasthan S.B. Criminal Misc.(Pet.) No. 1100/2021, order dated 26.07.2021
Referred To Discussed at ¶ 3
Rajasthan High Court order cited by the petitioner in support of passport renewal.