Rape Accused's Passport Cannot Be Impounded Merely On Victim's Request: Kerala High Court
The Kerala High Court has recently observed that the impounding of a rape accused’s passport cannot be done merely on the asking of the victim, while closing a Writ Petition filed by a rape victim seeking that relief.
It is to be noted that the Court had granted bail to the accused on the condition that he must mark his appearance and sign before the Investigating Officer every Saturday, until the final report is filed.
On the central government counsel's submission that the impounding of the passport of any person is an extreme step, and can be done only on Court's order, a bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran thus observed, “…I also record his submission that since there are no conditions imposed on the bail order of the third respondent to such effect, the impounding of his passport cannot be done merely on the asking of the petitioner”.
Advocate V.N. Kiran Lal appeared for the petitioner and Aparna C. Menon appeared for the accused (third respondent) with Central Government Counsel Gireesh Kumar.
Pertinently, a passport may only be impounded by the Passport Authorities in accordance with Section 10(3) of the Passports Act, 1967.
The petitioner victim thus sought directions to the Regional Passport Officer, and the Chief Passport Officer (Passport Seva Kendra) to impound the passport of the rape accused immediately alleging that he was attempting to flee from law.
The counsel for the accused thus submitted that her client already obtained an order of bail from the Court, where the only condition was that he must mark his appearance and sign before the Investigating Officer every Saturday, until the final report is filed.
It was further submitted that, therefore, her client cannot leave India, even if he wants so, and that he does not even intend to, without obtaining further orders from the competent Court.
The bench thus closed the writ petition, noting “…since he (accused) renders it luculent that the relief sought for by the petitioner is not necessary to be granted”.
However, the Court gave liberty to the petitioner to approach the Court again, if circumstances demand such action in future, then for which purpose all rival contentions were left open.
Cause Title: XXXXXXXXXX v. Regional Passport Officer [Neutral Citation: 2023/KER/70748]
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