Madras High Court Gives Clean Chit To IPS Officer In Fake Passport Case; Lauds BJP State President For Highlighting The Scam

The bench of Justice GR Swaminathan observed that field enquiry police officer play the most crucial in verification process and the buck stops with the nodal officer. "Involvement of the officials above the said rank may not really arise."

It remarked:

I give a clean chit to Shri.S.Davidson Devasirvatham IPS. At the same time, I compliment Shri.K.Annamalai, the State Bharatiya Janata Party President for having taken up the cause. He has played the role of a watchdog in a democracy. But for him the matter would not have come to light.

The court was hearing the plea of a man who was denied passport based on a police report that a criminal case was pending against him and that his passport was seized in that connection.

The State submitted that the petitioner had not come under the their adverse notice. The petitioner's travel agent Nazirudheen who was referred to in the police verification report was accused of a crime registered on the file of the Q Branch CID Police. Except for this relationship, there was nothing adverse to the petitioner. Thus, the state had no objections to allowing of the petition.

Apart from granting the prayer of the petitioner, the court also deemed it fit to consider the crime in question. The crime was registered based on information that one Vaidyanathan had conspired with unknown public servants and others at Madurai and Trichy and had fraudulently obtained Indian passports for many Sri Lankan and Indian nationals using forged signatures. The case was registered for offences under the Indian Penal Code and the Passport Act and an inquiry was underway.

Though a PIL was filed seeking to transfer the case to the CBI, a division bench had instead directed the Q Branch of CID to complete the investigation within three months. This time limit was later extended. However, the final report was still not filed.

Justice Swaminathan, therefore, directed the police to file a status report. According to the report, 41 persons were proposed to be prosecuted including officials from the Regional Passport Office and State police officials. The central government had given sanction only with respect to one of its servants and declined for 13. The state government had also granted sanctions with respect to the then Assistant Commissioner of Police, Intelligence Section, and other officers. It was informed to the court that the final report will be filed before the Judicial Magistrate shortly. The court directed the Magistrate to handle the matter expeditiously as the issue had serious national security implications.

Explaining the process of passport verification and the role of the various officers involved in it, the court opined that there are four logins for the police at various levels:

• One for the field inquiry police officer.
• One for the SHO.
• One for the District / City Police.
• One for the DSP/ACP (authorized by SP/COP) who acts as the nodal officer for passport verification.

The court noted that the buck stops with the nodal officer and that the involvement of officials above that rank may not arise. In the present case, the controversy arose due to a delay in filing the final report, in not adhering to the time limit fixed by the division bench, and delay in granting sanctions.

Thus, the court made the above remarks and allowed the petition.

Case Title: Sureshkumar v. The Regional Passport Officer and another

Case No: W.P.(MD)No.13544 of 2022

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Mad) 322

Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr.D.Rameshkumar

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr V.Malaiyendran (R1), Mr.G.Sivaraja, Government Advocate (R2)