Passports: India
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Lawsuit no ground for revoking passport: HC
TIMESNEWSNETWORK
The Times of India 2013/08/07
New Delhi: Even if a criminal case is pending against a person the passport office can’t as a rule revoke his passport, Delhi high court has clarified. The court said a passport can be impounded only in “appropriate cases” where cogent reasons have to be given in writing by the RPO.
Accepting the plea of a man, facing trial in a matrimonial case lodged by his wife, Justice V K Jain directed the passport authority to release his passport which was revoked on the ground of criminal charges against him. The court, however, directed him not to leave the country without its permission and also asked him to attend the ongoing criminal proceedings.
Allowing Manish Kumar Mittal's plea against the passport authority, Justice Jain noted, “The order passed by the Regional Passport Officer directing the petitioner (Mittal) to surrender his passport as well as the order passed by the appellate authority are, hereby, set aside. The respondents (authorities) are directed to release the passport of the petitioner to him forthwith.” The court also asked the RPO to pass an order within eight weeks after giving an opportunity to Mittal to make his stand clear under provisions of the Passports Act.
Demand for passports: region-wise
Passport demand highest from backward UP districts
Kartikeya | TNN
Mumbai: The largest demand for passports in the country is coming not from metros like Mumbai or Delhi but from 48 of India’s most backward districts in eastern and central Uttar Pradesh.
In 2009, the regional passport office (RPO) at Lucknow — which caters to districts like Gonda, Faizabad, Azamgarh and Jaunpur — received an average 1,403 applications daily for fresh passports. The staggering figure put it ahead of RPOs in Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab and the metros which have traditionally been the hubs of passport demand.
Immigrant workers from UP’s districts like Mirzapur, Pratapgarh, Gorakhpur, Ballia etc are known to flock to more developed states in search of livelihood. In states like Maharashtra some regional parties have even violently opposed the migration. But the huge demand for passports from the same poorer districts indicates that they are looking for jobs abroad as well.
In 2009, Uttar Pradesh also overtook Kerala and sent maximum number of workers abroad. This would also explain why the officials at Lucknow RPO find themselves buried under a huge heap of passport applications.
Data maintained by union ministry of overseas Indian affairs shows that until a few years ago barely a few thousand workers from UP sought emigration clearance each year to work overseas. In 2005, the number stood at just 22,558 workers. But thanks to a growing demand for construction workers in the Middle East, the numbers started going up dramatically since 2007.
Consequently, in 2009 more than 1,25,000 workers from UP received emigration clearance from the government, edging ahead of Kerala’s 1,19,000 workers. Apart from the Lucknow RPO, passport offices at Hyderabad (1,330 applications every day), Bangalore (1,226) and Ahmedabad (1,220) saw a huge demand. Overall 37 RPOs across the country received more than five million passport applications in 2009 at an average of 21,089 each day.
Insurance of passports:region-wise
Feb 06 2015
It's not any of the Regional Passport Offices in India's four largest metros -Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai -that issued the highest number of passports in 2013. The Hyderabad RTO topped with 5.9 lakh passports issued. It was followed by Bangalore and Lucknow. This trend might be linked to the higher number of IT companies in the south than in the north of the country.Lucknow, being the capital of India's most populous state, would be catering to a much larger population than other RTOs. In 2013, passport offices across the country received 69.7 lakh applications and issued 68.1 lakh passports
Passports issued: 2013-15
The Times of India, Jan 18 2016
1.14cr passports issued since 13 but verification the bane
While 6.33 crore Indians now hold valid passports, up considerably from 5.19 crore in 2013, the issuance of passport continues to suffer from delay in police verification, latest figures compiled by the foreign ministry show. In fact, the average allIndia time taken for police verification has now reduced to 34 days (it was 49 in 2013), but that's still way above the ministry's desired period of 21 days.
According to foreign ministry joint secretary and chief passport officer Muktesh Pardeshi, 61% of all passport verifications were completed within 21 days.
“Today , on a pan-India basis, 68% of normal passports which require police verification are issued within a month. If police verification period is excluded, then 94% of normal passports are issued within 21 days,“ he said. Interestingly , the newly created state of Telangana has emerged as the best-performing state by completing police verification in eight days. It is followed by Andhra Pradesh (12 days), Chandigarh (12 days), Goa (12 days) and Delhi (14 days).
Accord ing to the official, in the case of Tatkal applications, 34% passports were issued on the day of submission of papers. Overall, 87% were issued passports within three days.
In addition to the 77 Pass port Seva Kendras (PSKs) currently operational in public private partnership PPP) mode, the ministry has set up eight additional PSKs in Agartala, Aizawl, Gangtok, Imphal, Kalaburagi, Karimnagar, Darbhanga and Shillong, providing extended reach to passport applicants in the northeast. Ten more PSKs are likely to come up in 2016.
The data compiled by the ministry also reveals that Uttar Pradesh now accounts for the maximum number of passport applications. It is followed by Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Together they account for more than 51% of the applications.
Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ahmedabad receive the maximum number of applications in that order.Malappuram, Pune, Thane and Khozhikode are on top among the smaller towns and cities. The maximum number of Indian passport applications received abroad were in the UAE, followed by Saudi Arabia, the US, Kuwait and Qatar.
2016: Simplification of procedures
See graphic
Problems at airport
Information mismatch between passport and visa
Their bags are packed, they're ready to go.But they can't leave on a jet plane just yet. Indian travellers often commit mistakes while planning international trips, due to which they are not allowed to board flights or deported from their destination.
A Delhi couple heading to Dubai on honeymoon were not allowed to board the plane at IGI airport on Wednesday as the woman's visa identified her as “wife of “ x, while her passport, issued before marriage, had her name alone. The couple managed to fly out later, but travel industry veterans said, in such cases, it's best to carry proof of the marriage. If you are married and the name of your partner is not on the passport, remember to carry a marriage certificate along. In case you don't have it, carry an affidavit or marriage photographs along with some other proof,“ said Sharat Dhall, president of travel portal Yatra.com. “If someone's passport has an emigration clearance required (ECR) stamp, they need to get emigration check done prior to departure,“ he added.
According to leading travel agents, this is just one of several mistakes that result in last-minute heartbreaks for travellers. “Almost on a daily basis, we have people returning from airports or being deported due to common mistakes,“ Anil Kalsi of Delhibased Ambey Travels said.
One of them, he said, was not checking the transit visa requirements before booking flights with layovers. “People look for lowest fares and end up buying tickets without keeping in mind transit visa requirements. For example, people flying from India to the US via Canada, or India to Canada via the US, buy tickets without realising that they would require a transit visa for Canada and the US,“ he said, “Such people are sent back from origin airports.“
If you're flying from India to New Zealand or Fiji via Australia, you will need an Australian transit visa, Kalsi added.
Another mistake is ignoring the validity of passports, especially while travelling to countries that offer visa on arrival. “It is common to see tourists being deported from Bali (Indonesia offers visa on arrival) as they land with passports due to expire in less than six months (from date of return) and are denied visa,“ Kalsi said.
Dhall of Yatra.com added, “Passengers must ensure their visa and passport details match in terms of name, passport validity , details and date etc. Travel dates and visa dates should be matched particularly for Schengen visa.“
