C.W.P NO. 6002 OF 2009 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.W.P NO. 6002 OF 2009 DECIDED ON : 22.04.2009 Jagdish Kaur ...Petitioner versus Regional Passport Officer ...Respondent CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURYA KANT Present : Mr. Vinod Bhardwaj, Advocate, for the petitioner. SURYA KANT, J. (ORAL) The petitioner seeks a direction to the Regional Passport Officer, Jalandhar, for issuance of a duplicate passport bearing NO. B 5301972 to be valid upto 01.05.2011. The petitioner's case is that a valid passport, bearing No. B 5301972, was issued in her favour on 02.05.2001 and it was valid till 01.05.2011. The petitioner was involved in a criminal case bearing FIR No. 22 dated 17.01.2003 under Sections 406/409/420/467/471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code registered at Police Station Barnala, District Sangrur. The petitioner was granted pre-arrest bail and in terms of the conditions imposed upon her while granting that relief, she was directed to deposit her passport with the Investigating Officer. The police authorities further deposited the said passport in the C.W.P NO. 6002 OF 2009 -2- Court. According to the petitioner, her original passport got badly damaged while in the Court's custody, which she has appended with her application to the Regional Passport Officer, Jalandhar, for the issuance of a duplicate passport. The Regional Passport Officer though issued a duplicate passport but it was valid for a period of one year only i.e from 11.09.2007 to 10.09.2008. The validity of the duplicate passport having expired, the petitioner is unable to visit abroad as per the permission granted by this Court vide order dated 01.05.2007 passed in Crl. Misc. No. 21675-M of 2007. The petitioner's further grievance is that though she has applied for issuance of a duplicate passport, which should be valid till the expiry of the original passport i.e 01.05.2011, but so far her request has gone unattended. Having heard learned counsel for the petitioner and considering the nature of relief sought in this writ petition, prima facie, the petitioner's request appears to be genuine and needs immediate attention of the respondent. Consequently, the writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the Regional Passport Officer, Jalandhar to consider the petitioner's request for issuance of a duplicate passport to be valid till 01.05.2011, especially when the original passport bearing No. B 5301972 is already stated to have been deposited with the passport authorities. The needful shall be done within a period of two months from the date of receipt of certified copy of this order. C.W.P NO. 6002 OF 2009 -3- Disposed of. Let a copy of this order be given dasti on payment of usual charges. APRIL 22, 2009 (SURYA KANT) shalini JUDGE