Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC-LKO:11836-DB Court No. - 1 Case :- WRIT - C No. - 1666 of 2025 Petitioner :- Danish Ahmad Respondent :- U.O.I. Thru. Its Ministry Of External Affairs And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Shwetabh Singh,Kunwar Virendra Singh Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,C.S.C. Hon'ble Attau Rahman Masoodi,J. Hon'ble Manish Kumar,J. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri S.B. Pandey, learned Senior Advocate, assisted by Sri Varun Pandey, learned counsel for opposite party nos. 1 & 2. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the application for issuance of passport has not been dealt with by the competent authority since October, 2024. The petitioner in his writ petition has clearly disclosed in paragraph 7 that two criminal cases are pending against the petitioner. The first one is Crime No. 0491/2020, dated 21.08.2020, under Sections 147, 323, 504, 506, 325 IPC, P.S. Thakurganj, District Lucknow and the second one is Crime No. 0522/2020, dated 05.09.2020, under Section 3/25 of Arms Act, 1955, P.S. Thakurganj, District Lucknow in which charge-sheet has already been filed and cognizance has been taken by the concerned court. The Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs has issued guidelines, according to which in a situation where criminal cases are pending against a person, on applying for issuing a passport/renewal of passport, the matter is regulated under Notification dated 25th August, 1993, which, for ready reference, has been reproduced in a judgment rendered by this Court in Misc. Bench No.31723 of 2018. Learned counsel for the petitioner has also placed reliance on a judgment rendered by Delhi High Court in Criminal Appeal No.686/2018 (Ashok Khanna Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation) decided on 07.11.2019, MANU/DE/3767/2019 and reliance has also been placed upon a judgment/order passed by Hon'ble Apex Court in Criminal Appeal Nos. 1342/2017 (Vangala Kasturi Rangacharyulu Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation), MANU/SCOR/34388/2021, decided on 27.09.2021. On a careful reading of the notification, placed on record, it is gathered that it is the competent court where the criminal case is pending that the petitioner may make an appropriate application for issuance/renewal of the passport before the court concerned seeking directions to the competent authority for issuing/renewal of passport during pendency of the criminal cases. In case any such application is filed, it is expected that the competent court shall pass necessary orders expeditiously, preferably within a period of two months from the date of its filing, after putting the parties to notice. With the above observation, the writ petition is disposed of. Order Date :- 27.2.2025 Nitesh Digitally signed by :- NITESH KUMAR TEWARY High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench