Bombay High Court Directs Passport Authority To Consider Renewing Shiney Ahuja's Passport For 10 Yrs Pending Appeal Against Rape Conviction

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Passport Authority of India not to withhold the renewal of actor and rape convict Shiney Ahuja’s passport on grounds of his pending appeal in High Court.

Justice Amit Borkar observed, “Considering the fact that during pendency of present appeal passport was renewed on more than six occasions and there is no violation of bail conditions, the applicant has made out a case for direction to the passport authority to renew the applicant’s passport, provided he is otherwise liable for renewal of passport for ten years.”

On March 30, 2011 a sessions court in Mumbai convicted and sentenced Shiney Ahuja to seven years imprisonment for raping (section 376 of the IPC) his house help.

Ahuja challenged his conviction and sentence in an appeal before the Bombay High Court, which granted him bail on April 27, 2011. One of the conditions imposed on him was not leaving the country without the court’s permission.

He was allowed to travel abroad on December 5, 2011 after giving a complete itinerary of the places he wished to visit. The court accordingly directed return of his passport.

In his plea Ahuja claimed he approached the Embassy of India at Philippines for renewing his passport. However, they cited a court order as a necessary document for renewal and sought for the court order to specify the validity period failing which it would be renewed only for a year.

Ahuja through his advocate Karamsingh B. Rajput submitted that renewal of the passport for period of one year was causing him unnecessary hardship as some countries didn’t allow citizens carrying passport of validity of less than six months to stay in that country.

“It appears that during pendency of present appeal passport of the applicant has been renewed six times. It is, therefore, unlikely that the applicant carries flight risk,” the court noted.

Accordingly, it disposed of the interim application and passed the following order, “Respondent Nos.2 and 3 are directed that the application of the applicant for renewal of passport for period of ten years shall not be rejected on the ground of pendency of the present appeal, provided the applicant is otherwise eligible for renewal of passport.”

Case Title: Shiney Suraj Ahuja vs State of Maha & others | IA – 10753/ 2023