The high court has directed the regional passport officer to not insist on the father's consent to process the passport application of a nine-year-old.
The mere grant of passport would not per se result in the curtailment of visitation rights, Justice Krishna S Dixit observed while hearing a petition filed by the child's mother. The couple is divorced.
According to the petitioner, a court order dated February 25, 2022, gave her exclusive custody of her daughter, while her ex-husband was granted limited visitation rights.
On April 12, 2022, she applied for a passport for her daughter. Passport authorities insisted on the father's presence or his consent to process the application, she said.
It was argued that the Passport Act, 1967, and the manual issued thereunder prescribed consent of the estranged husband as a precondition for the grant of the passport.
Hearing the petition, Justice Dixit said that the right to travel abroad is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The court, however, specified that the petitioner should not travel without taking permission from the family court.
"The petitioners are more than justified in contending that the passport is only a travel document which enables the grantee to pass the port of his country and therefore it is not that passport per se enables him to travel abroad sans visa to be granted by the intended host country," the court said.
The court directed the passport authorities to comply with the order within four weeks.
It also directed the family court to expeditiously decide, if an application is made by the petitioner seeking permission to travel.
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