Police nor criminal court can seize passport, says Karnataka HC
Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has reiterated that ”neither the police nor the criminal court invoking powers under Sections 102 or 104 of the Criminal Procedure Code can seize or impound a passport.” The court, therefore, recently quashed the order of the Debt Recovery Tribunal-1, Bengaluru, which had impounded the passport of Nitin Shambhukumar Kasliwal, a businessman from Mumbai.
The court said the Tribunal has the powers of a civil court and when the civil court itself cannot impound a passport, the DRT too cannot.
The facts of the case date back to 1999 when Kasliwal had executed an agreement in favour of various lenders for loans secured. In 2015, the lender banks initiated a case before the Debt Recovery Tribunal seeking repayment and in default attachment and sale of properties of Kasliwal and his businesses.
The banks applied for the surrender of Kasliwal’s passport. On April 16, 2015, the Tribunal passed an order retaining his passport.
Subsequently, Kasliwal filed applications whenever he needed to travel abroad and in return surrendered the passport to the Tribunal.
In December 2016 he sought the release of his passport as he had to renew it before its validity expired, but his application was rejected. He then approached the High Court.
Kasliwal’s petition was heard by Justice M Nagaprasanna, who gave his judgment on December 6, 2023.
The court noted that the Tribunal had the same powers vested in a civil court.
”The issue is, whether the Tribunal can direct withholding of passport of any person in terms of the power ascribed under the provisions quoted hereinabove. The answer would be an unequivocal and emphatic ‘NO’,” the court said in its judgment.
Reasoning that the Tribunal does not have the power to impound passports, the court said, ”The Passport Act is a special enactment and is trite that it being a special enactment which would prevail over any power of even the civil court or criminal court to retain or impound a passport.
”The issue in the case at hand is, such an act being done by the Tribunal which undoubtedly has only the power of following the procedure of a civil court in securing ends of justice. The civil court or the criminal court itself does not have the power to impound the passport.” The court said that though Sections 102 and 104 empower the police to seize and the court to impound any document, it does not include the passport.
”Impounding of any document produced before the court cannot stretch to an extent that those courts can impound the passport also,” it said.
Ordering the Tribunal to release the passport of Kasliwal, the court said, ”The very act of the Tribunal in directing surrender of the passport of a citizen or its detention before it, would amount to impounding of the passport. Such power is unavailable to the Tribunal.”
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Kerala govt to declare as ''dead'' people missing in Wayanad landslide
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 15 (PTI): The Kerala government has decided to declare as ‘deceased’ the people who went missing in the devastating landslide in Wayanad last year which will help provide compensation to their families.
The decision comes as a huge relief to the kin of people who were reported missing in the disaster.
As per a government order issued on Tuesday, local, district and state level committees will be formed including revenue department officials to examine the list of missing people.
The local level committee includes the panchayat secretary, village officer and station house officer of respective police stations. The committee will prepare a list of missing people and submit it to the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) for scrutiny.
The DDMA will examine the list and forward it to the state-level committee with its suggestions. The state level committee, comprising additional chief secretary (home) and principal secretaries of revenue and local self-government, will examine the list and forward it to the government, the order said.
The government will subsequently issue an order declaring them as dead and providing ex-gratia to their close relatives.
According to official record, 263 people were dead and 35 people were reported missing in the landslides that occurred on July 30 last year. The order directs the local level committee to closely examine the FIRs filed in connection with the missing people in the respective police stations.
The tahsildar or sub-divisional magistrate should conduct a detailed enquiry about the missing person and the findings will be published on the official website and government gazette.
A 30-day period will be given for filing any objections, after which the list of missing people will be published and death certificates issued to their immediate relatives, the order said.
