Kerala High Court imposes ₹25k costs on Passport Officer for rejecting application by divorced mother to renew daughter's passport

The Kerala High Court recently imposed costs of ₹25,000 on a passport officer for compelling a divorced woman to resort to litigation for re-issuance of her minor daughter's passport [Shiny Shukoor v Union of India]..Single-judge Justice Amit Rawal noted that numerous single-parents in the midst of marital dispute have been forced to approach the court to secure an order in order to get passports re-issued to their children despite filling up the necessary forms."The officers at the helm of affairs exercising the powers for issuing the passport are supposed to deal with the application in a pragmatic and reasonable manner, but should not reject the application in the manner and mode as extracted above. Knowing fully well that this Court would have expressed concern with regard to the spate of litigation and may come down heavily on the action of the respondents, in anticipation of that processed the application of the petitioner, but for redressal of the grievance, is impelled to shell out litigation expenses," the Court said..The Court directed the concerned passport officer to pay the cost of the litigation to the tune of ₹25,000.Further, it ordered that a copy of the Court's judgement be circulated to all the passport officers in the State who frequently exhibit such "classic case(s) of high-handedness" forcing affected parties to approach the Court "for no rhyme or reason".The Court's order came on a petition filed by a divorced single-mother who applied for a passport for her minor daughter. However, the passport officer affixed a note which said, “Single parent case. Pl. process with change of name docs and hold for F's (father's) consent in D or court order. (Child's custody not mentioned in the divorce order).”.It was submitted on behalf of the concerned passport officer that application of the petitioner was processed a month later and that the passport shall be issued.However, the Court saw it fit to impose the cost of the litigation on the Assistant Passport Officer concerned and ordered him to pay ₹25,000 from his own salary..[Read Judgment]