<p>The Delhi High Court in August 2014 restored the passport of industrialist and cricket administrator Lalit Modi, because it held that its revocation three years ago had been a “far too wide and excessive” action against him as his only offence was “non-compliance of summons” issued by the Enforcement Directorate.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“The revocation order is far too wide, excessive and/or disproportionate to the ‘mischief’ ‘or ‘evil’ of non-compliance of summons issued by the Directorate of Enforcement,” a division bench of the Delhi High Court observed in its judgment on August 27, 2014.<br /><br />The Delhi High Court’s order restoring Modi’s passport in fact came just a few weeks after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj acted on a request from the former Indian Premier League commissioner and told British High Commissioner in New Delhi that India would not have any objection if the UK granted him a travel document to visit Portugal to be present during a surgery his wife would undergo there.<br /><br />Modi needed the travel document from the British government as he was in London and he did not have a valid passport to travel out of the UK.<br /><br /> The ED had on October 4, 2010 written to the Regional Passport Officer in Mumbai that the passport of Modi should be revoked as a complaint had been lodged against him under section 13 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act and he had been issued a show-cause notice for non-compliance summonses issued by the agency.</p>
<p>The Delhi High Court in August 2014 restored the passport of industrialist and cricket administrator Lalit Modi, because it held that its revocation three years ago had been a “far too wide and excessive” action against him as his only offence was “non-compliance of summons” issued by the Enforcement Directorate.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“The revocation order is far too wide, excessive and/or disproportionate to the ‘mischief’ ‘or ‘evil’ of non-compliance of summons issued by the Directorate of Enforcement,” a division bench of the Delhi High Court observed in its judgment on August 27, 2014.<br /><br />The Delhi High Court’s order restoring Modi’s passport in fact came just a few weeks after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj acted on a request from the former Indian Premier League commissioner and told British High Commissioner in New Delhi that India would not have any objection if the UK granted him a travel document to visit Portugal to be present during a surgery his wife would undergo there.<br /><br />Modi needed the travel document from the British government as he was in London and he did not have a valid passport to travel out of the UK.<br /><br /> The ED had on October 4, 2010 written to the Regional Passport Officer in Mumbai that the passport of Modi should be revoked as a complaint had been lodged against him under section 13 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act and he had been issued a show-cause notice for non-compliance summonses issued by the agency.</p>
