Power to impound passport only under Passports Act: HC

The High Court has said that though the power of impounding a document is available to the court under Section 104 of the CrPC, the same cannot be stretched to the extent of impounding a passport.

Justice M Nagaprasanna said that since the Passports Act is a special enactment, it prevails over the provisions of section 104 of the CrPC and that the power of impounding a passport is available only to the competent authority under the Passports Act.

The petition was filed by an accused in the multi-crore Manipal Group fraud case.

He challenged the order of the trial court, rejecting his application seeking release of the passport.

The high court said that issuance of passport and its impounding is dealt with under special enactment, The Passports Act, 1967.

“The Passport Act is a special enactment and is trite that it being a special enactment would prevail over Section 102 or Section 104 of the CrPC., which empower the Police to seize and the Court to impound any document. Impounding any document produced before the Court cannot stretch to an extent that it can impound the passport. Therefore, the deposit of a passport before the Court or passport being held before the Police both will become without authority of law,” Justice Nagaprasanna
said.

It was submitted that the petitioner had gone absconding after he was arrayed as an accused in the supplementary charge sheet.

He was arrested by the immigration department at the Kempegowda international airport in Bengaluru on November 18, 2021, and his passport was seized.

On December 20, 2021, he was enlarged on bail by imposing conditions. The petitioner pleaded saying there was urgency to leave the country to get his son admitted to a school in France.

The bench said that the power of impounding a passport is available only to the competent authority under Section 10 of the Passports Act.

A direction has been issued to hand over the passport to the petitioner within three weeks.

However, considering that the criminal proceedings are pending, the court has said that it is open to the respondents, including the Cubbon Park police, to approach the Passport Authority for impounding the passport of the petitioner.

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