IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) SUNDAY, THE ELEVENTH DAY OF MAY TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 24122 of 2008 Between: Dinesh Chandra S/o. Sukhdev Nagla R/o. 20-2-77, Old Kabutar Khana, Near Sai Baba Temple, Hyderabad, A.P. ..... PETITIONER AND Passport Officer, Regional Passport Office, Hyderabad Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, Besides Prashant Theatre, Secunderabad. .....RESPONDENT 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 or directions, more so in nature of Writ of Mandamus there by directing the respondent to issue ECNR in the application No.225673 on its re-presentation by the petitioner to them, by declaring the action of the Respondent herein as illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable, without authority of law, unconstitutional, without application of mind, and for refusal to exercise its oﬃcial duty in spite of legal compliance by the petitioner. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.S.SUDEEP REDDY Counsel for the Respondent No.: . The Court made the following : ORDER This writ petition has been ﬁled by Dinesh Chandra assailing the action of the respondent in not issuing ECNR to him. The petitioner holds a passport issued by the respondent on 4.10.1999 vide passport No.BO655757 which is valid upto 3.10.2009. Basing on the said passport, he visited Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 23.12.2004 and came back to India on 03.01.2005. His passport bears the immigration stamp on 18.12.2004. He obtained Visa to go to Gulf state of Qatar. He submitted necessary application to the respondent for grant of ECNR. His application came to be rejected on the ground that the Secondary School Certiﬁcate does not bear his surname. The action of the respondent in returning the application for ECNR is assailed in this writ petition. When the writ petition came up for admission, Sri B.V.Ram Naresh Kumar, learned standing counsel for Central Government received notice on behalf of the respondent. Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and the learned standing counsel for Central Government appearing for the respondent. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner furnished necessary information in the application submitted by him for grant of ECNR. He further submits that the action of the respondent in returning the application on the ground of the SSC certiﬁcate not containing the surname of the petitioner, is solely unjustified. A fact remains that the respondent after going through the necessary documents issued passport, which was made use of by the petitioner to go abroad. Such is the situation, the action of the respondent in not entertaining the application for grant of ECNR on the ground of the SSC Certiﬁcate not containing the surname of the petitioner cannot be justified. In that view of the matter, the writ petition is disposed of directing the respondent to consider the application ﬁled by the petitioner for issue of ECNR and pass appropriate orders. No costs. __________ 05-11-2008 rkk THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 24122 of 2008 OPERATIVE PORTION OF ORDER: The writ petition is disposed of directing the respondents to consider the application ﬁled by the petitioner for issue of ECNR and pass appropriate orders. No costs. __________ 05-11-2008 Note: Issue wire at party’s costs. After dispatch of copy of the order, the bundle be sent to the CM Section. (B.O) rkk