MEA to wait for 10 days for Prajwal Revanna's response to show cause notice before cancelling his passport

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will wait till June 2 for Prajwal Revanna, a member of the outgoing Lok Sabha, to reply to the notice it served to him after receiving a request from the Government of Karnataka for the cancellation of the passport issued to him.

Revanna has been suspended from his party, Janata Dal (Secular), in the wake of the allegation of rape and sexual harassment against him. Acting on a request from the state government, the MEA on May 23 issued him a notice to explain why his passport should not be cancelled. He was given 10 days to respond to the notice.

The member of the outgoing Lok Sabha is likely to return to Bengaluru from Germany in the wee hours on Friday.

 “We received a request from the Karnataka government on May 21. On May 23, as per the Indian Passport Act, we initiated action for cancellation of (diplomatic) passport of the Member of Parliament, Prajwal Revanna,” Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the MEA, told journalists in New Delhi on Thursday. “On May 23, we issued a show-cause notice to him. He has to respond to the notice within 10 days. We are waiting for his response. Accordingly, we will take things forward once we hear from him or the 10-day period expires,” added Jaiswal, who was responding to a question from the journalists on the action taken by the MEA in the wake of the request of the state government.

Section 10 (2) (h) of the Passport Act 1967 has provisions for the cancellation of a passport “if it is brought to the notice of the passport authority that a warrant or summons for the appearance, or a warrant for the arrest, of the holder of the passport or travel document has been issued by a court under any law for the time being in force”. 

The Special Court for Elected Representatives issued an arrest warrant against Prajwal on May 18, acting on a request of the Special Investigation Team, which was constituted to probe the allegations against the Lok Sabha member and the grandson of the former prime minister, H D Deve Gowda. This was followed by the request of the state government to the MEA for cancellation of the passport issued to him.

The MEA had on May 2 confirmed that Prajwal Revanna had travelled to Germany on a diplomatic passport. Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the MEA, said that no visa note was issued for the Lok Sabha MP as it was not required for the holder of a diplomatic passport for travelling to Germany.

Jaiswal had also stated that Revanna had not sought political clearance for his travel to Germany.