HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD WRIT - C No. - 28218 of 2025 Court No. - 21 HON'BLE MANOJ KUMAR GUPTA, J. HON'BLE ARUN KUMAR, J. 1. The instant writ petition has been filed praying for a writ of mandamus commanding respondent No.3 to extend the validity of passport No.AB303429 in accordance with law. 2. The petitioner applied for renewal/issuance of fresh passport on 22.07.2023. It is admitted to the petitioner that he is an accused in Session Case No.218 of 2019 and is on bail. The petitioner's application for grant of passport was rejected on 12.03.2024. Aggrieved thereby, petitioner filed Writ-C No.3911 of 2025 and the said writ petition was disposed of vide order dated 27.02.2025 with liberty to the petitioner to apply for grant of no-objection certificate from the concerned court in terms of judgment in Pawan Kumar Rajbhar vs. Union of India and 2 others ( Writ-C No. 41540 of 2023) decided on 19.01.2024, with further direction to passport authorities to pass appropriate orders in case, no-objection certificate is granted by the court. Thereafter, petitioner applied for no- objection certificate from the concerned court and the said application was allowed by order dated 21.03.2025. According to the petitioner, on basis of no-objection granted by the court, the passport has been renewed for a period of one year with expiry date as 09.06.2026. 3. The case of the petitioner is that in view of no-objection granted by the court, the petitioner should have been granted passport with validity of ten years. Learned counsel for the petitioner places reliance on judgment of Bombay High Court in Writ Petition No.361 of 2014 (Narendra K. Versus Counsel for Petitioner(s) : Mohd Tazim, Shahzad Alam Counsel for Respondent(s) : A.S.G.I., Arun Kumar Pal, C.S.C. Mo Adil .....Petitioner(s) Union Of India And 4 Others .....Respondent(s) Ambwani vs. Union of India and others). 4. On the other hand, Shri Arun Kumar Pal, Advocate appearing for respondents No. 1, 2 & 3 submits that in exercise of powers conferred by clause (a) of Section 22 of the Passport Act, 1967, the Ministry of External Affairs has issued a notification on 25.08.1993 whereunder guidelines for exemption from the rigour of clause (f) of sub-section (2) of Section 6 of the Act have been provided. Thereunder, in cases where an applicant seeking a passport produces order from the concerned court permitting him to depart from India but no period is prescribed, the passport would be issued for a period of one year. The relevant part of the said notification is as under: "(ii) If no period either for the issue of the passport or for the travel abroad is specified in such order, the passport shall be issued for a period one year." 5. Even in the judgment of Bombay High Court in Narendra K. Ambwani (supra) cited on behalf of the petitioner, the said notification has been duly considered and it has been observed that the guidelines provided thereunder will continue to apply. The said part of the judgment is extracted below: "12. For avoidance of doubt, we clarify that the guidelines set out herein will be applicable only in the cases where the learned Magistrate ordered renewal of the passports as per Passport Rules, 1980 and to no other. In other cases, where the learned Magistrate had granted permission to the accused persons to depart from India, the provisions of section 6(2)(f) of the Passports Act, 1967 and the Notification(s) issued thereunder from time to time by the Ministry of External Affairs or such other competent authority so empowered, will continue to apply and directions permitting the accused persons to depart from India and/or the orders permitting renewal of the passports of such accused persons shall continue to be governed by such Notification(s)." 6. As the notification in question has been issued in exercise of the WRIC No. 28218 of 2025 2 powers conferred under the Act which is binding and therefore, we find no illegality in the action of the respondents in granting passport with validity period of one year, as no period was prescribed by the court while granting No-objection. 7. The petition lacks merit and is dismissed. September 11, 2025 Mukesh Kr. WRIC No. 28218 of 2025 3 (Arun Kumar,J.) (Manoj Kumar Gupta,J.) Digitally signed by :- MUKESH KUMAR High Court of Judicature at Allahabad