IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE TWELFTH DAY OF JUNE TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 2691 of 2008 Between: Divya Sri Morla, D/o. Ankavara Prasad, R/o. Morlavari Palem Village, Peteru Post, Repalle Mandal, Guntur District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi. 2 The Regional Pass Port Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, Regional Pass Port Office, Adjacent Prasanth Theatre, Near Clock Tower, Secunderabad, A.P. .....RESPONDENT(S) Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to issue a Writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus to direct the 2nd respondent herein to issue the Pass port to the Petitioner pertaining to File No. HYDA30255807 on the file of the 2nd respondent without asking penalty amount of Rs. 5,000/- and pass Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.K.RAMA KOTESWARA RAO Counsel for the Respondent No.: MR.K.KISHOR KUMAR REDDY The Court made the following : THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY W.P.NO.2691 OF 2008 O R D E R; The writ petition has been filed by one Divya Sri Morla assailing the action of the Regional Passport Officer- 2nd respondent in imposing penalty of Rs.5,000/- for suppression of the current residential address in the passport application submitted by her. 2. The petitioner is a resident of Morlavaripalem village, Repalle Mandal, Guntur District. She submitted an application seeking passport. In Column No.8 of the application, she has given the current residential address. The application has been sent for verification. During the verification, it is found out that she was not residing in the address given in column No.8 since a year preceding the date of application. Thereupon, she furnished address details under letter dated 11.6.2007. The second respondent considered the address furnished by the petitioner and proceeded to impose a penalty of Rs.5,000/- on the ground that she suppressed her current residential address in a year preceding the date of application. The penalty imposed by the second respondent is under challenge in the writ petition. 3. Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and the learned standing counsel appearing for the respondents. 4. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is a student and omission of giving the current address as indicated in column No.9 is not intentional. 5. Learned standing counsel appearing for the respondents submits that the petitioner has given the current residential address in column No.8 and ultimately it is found to be not correct. On further correspondence, the petitioner has given the correct address. It indicates that the petitioner has suppressed the correct address while submitting the application seeking passport. 6. In that view of the matter, I do not see any illegality in imposing the penalty of Rs.5,000/-on the petitioner for suppressing the current address in the passport application submitted by her. However, in the event of the petitioner paying the penalty, the second respondent has to consider the application and pass appropriate orders for issue of passport. 7. The writ petition is disposed of at the stage of admission. ________________________ B.SESHASAYANA REDDY,J 12th June, 2008 PNV To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{KURR} THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY W.P.NO.2691 OF 2008 12TH JUNE,2008