Gujarat High Court Allows Single Mother's Plea For Renewal Of Passport Of Minor Children Without Father's Signature

The Gujarat High Court has allowed a divorced woman's plea for renewal of passports of minor children without their father's signature, relying on the Memorandum of Understanding.

The Court was considering a Petition seeking quashing of a communication issued by the Regional Passport Office, whereby insistence was made for production of a no-objection affidavit from the father of the minor children.

The Bench of Justice LS Pirzada observed, "....it is not in dispute that decree of divorce has already been obtained by the present petitioner no.3 and respondent no.2 – husband and subsequently, they got divorce and as per the Memorandum of Understanding executed between them, the custody of the minor daughter and son is to be kept with the mother i.e. the petitioner no.3 and considering the same, the petitioner no.3 has applied for renewal of the passport and the same was rejected by the respondent no.1 on the ground that the father’s consent or No Objection for minors’ passports has not been produced along with the application form.....Considering the above, this Court is inclined to allow the present petition...."

The Applicant was represented by Advocate Grishma Ahuja, while the Respondent was represented by Advocate Pradip D Bhate.

Facts of the Case

Counsel for the Applicant submitted that the Memorandum of Understanding was executed between the Respondent-Husband and the Petitioner-Wife and as per the same, two minor children are in the custody of the Wife as she is mother of both the minor children.

It was further submitted that passports of the minor children are required to be renewed as one of them has to appear in the examination of SAT and accordingly, at the time of filling up the form, the copy of the passport is required and when they approached the passport authority, it denied renewal of the passports mainly on the ground that No Objection of the father was obtained.

It was submitted that it is not possible to secure the consent of the husband at this stage and in the absence of his consent, if the passports are not renewed, the minor daughter has to suffer a lot.

Reasoning By Court

The Court referred to Section Section 4(3) of the Schedule-II of the Passport Rules, 1980 which provides that a single parent who is separated, but not formally divorced, is also eligible to endorse consent to prefer an application and get a passport and it apparently by way of abundant caution that the authority has indicated that the passport could not be granted unless there is consent of any of the parent or if there was a Court order.

It, however, took into consideration the memorandum at the time of divorce and granted the relief for the sake of the children. The Petition was accordingly allowed.

Cause Title:

Appearances:

Petitioner- Advocate Grishma Ahuja, Advocate Karna H Dhomse

Respondent- Advocate Pradip D Bhate

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