New Delhi: In a ruling that could have a bearing on the powers of the police and other investigating agencies, the Supreme Court has ruled that passports cannot be impounded by the police.
The Supreme Court passed the order when it was laying down the law with respect to impounding of passports.
The court said that the Passport Act is a specialised act and it overrides any law in relation to issues of passport, impounding or otherwise.
The court gave the decision in the case of Suresh Nanda, an arms dealer who allegedly received kickbacks in the Barak missle deal during the NDA Government. In October 2006, the CBI had raided Nanda's house and impounded his passport.
Nanda's counsel Harish Salve, while arguing for the release of his client's passport from the CBI, told the court that the CBI has been holding up the passport of his client for the last one-and-a-half year and this amounted to infringement of his fundamental rights guranteed under Artice 21 (Article 21 talks about personal liberty and after the Maneka Gandhi case, the right to travel abroad has been a right guranteed under the personal liberties).
Till now, the police or the CBI have been impounding passports of criminals under the Criminal procedure code (CrPC).
But on Thursday, the court made it clear that any issues that have to do with passports will be dealt with only by the passport authorities, which means if a passport has to be impounded, it will be done only by the passport authorities.
The CBI had registered an FIR in the Barak missile purchase case in 2006, but barring Suresh Nanda, the investigating agency did not question any one else, including George Fernandes and Jaya Jaitely, whose names too had come up in connection with the case. Salve went on to say that this is a political case.
The court had asked the CBI why Fernandes and others named in the FIR were not questioned. The CBI evaded answering this question, saying it is under no obligation to answer that question.
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