Iltija Mufti has no ground to approach court over delay in issuing passport, says police

Srinagar: The criminal investigation department wing of police approached the High Court seeking the dismissal of the writ petition filed by PDP president Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Iltija for issuance of passport. The police said the final verification report of her application was forwarded to the concerned department last month.

The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), headquarters, CID J&K claimed that the final passport verification report has been forwarded to the Regional Passport Officer on February 26. "That the petitioner has no ground to approach the Court against the answering respondent because none of the rights, whether fundamental or legal, has been infringed by the answering respondent."

He alleged that Mufti has wrongly implicated the department as party respondent in the matter as the CID only has an informative role in the passport proceedings. He further said that the CID has no role in deciding whether or not to issue the passport. "That is the sole domain of passport authorities."

"The answering respondents department (CID) primarily is an intelligence wing of the government of J&K and has a limited role to the extent of discreetly verifying the character/Antecedents of persons on the recommendations of the competent authorities. The role of CID ends as soon as the report is forwarded," said the official.

Iltija’s passport was set to expire on 2 January 2023 and she applied for a new one on 8 June 2022. Since she hadn't received a new passport until months after, she sought legal intervention. Iltija Mufti said she immediately needs the passport to apply for a student visa abroad to study sustainable development. The 35-year-old approached the High Court in February 2023 and said, "The Passport as per the instruction manual is expected to be dispatched within approximately 30 days…the inaction is discriminatory in nature and unconstitutional."

Speaking about the procedure of issuing passports, the police officer said: "The passport Authorities as quasi-judicial authorities, decide the applications after conducting inquiry wherein reports are sought from different agencies, including Police, CID, etc. The report of the CID has only an assistive and not decisive role in such instances. It is the discretion of the Passport Authority to rely or not to rely on the report of the CID based on its subjective satisfaction."

"The contentions or grounds taken by the petitioner do not hold any merit so far as the answering respondent has not committed any discrimination or arbitrariness in order to infringe the rights of the petitioner. The present writ petition is bereft of merit and deserved to be dismissed with costs," he added.

In March 2021, Mehbooba Mufti and her mother Gulshan Nazir were refused passports after Jammu and Kashmir's police opposed it citing an "adverse report" against the politician. Mehbooba's passport expired in 2019 and the application for a new one is still pending. Her mother's passport was released by authorities after the High Court ordered it.