Image for representational purpose only.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the J&K Police has told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that a police verification report regarding the passport of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter, Iltija, was forwarded to the passport office in February. The CID sought dismissal of the writ petition filed by Ms. Iltija over the delay in the issuance of her passport.
“The final police verification report was forwarded to the Regional Passport Officer (RPO) on February 16, 2023. The petitioner has wrongly impleaded (CID) as a party. The CID has a mere informative role in the passport proceedings and neither any relief has been nor could be sought from it,” the counsel for the CID told the court.
Ms. Iltija Mufti, 35, had approached the court on February 15 over the delay in the issuance of her passport. Ms. Mufti said that she applied for the passport in June 2022, but it was delayed “due to pending police verification”. She told the court that she required the passport immediately “to apply for obtaining a Masters’s Degree in Sustainable Development from outside the country”.
She pleaded that restraining her from travelling abroad was “not only illegal but violates with impunity the mandate of Article 21 of the Constitution of India”.
The CID’s counsel sought dismissal of the writ petition.
“The role of CID ends as soon as the report is forwarded. The CID has no prerogative of deciding whether or not to issue the passport, which is the sole domain of passport authorities.The report of the CID has only (an) assistive and not decisive role in such instances. It’s the discretion of the passport authority to rely or not to rely on the report of the CID based on its subjective satisfaction,” the counsel told the court.
The counsel stressed that the investigation agency had not committed any discrimination.