Siliguri: PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has been issued a passport after three years. Sources gave this information here on Sunday. The passport given to Mehbooba is valid for 10 years from 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2033. Mehbooba was granted a passport after a long legal battle in the Delhi High Court.
Her passport expired on May 31, 2019 and since then she was seeking its renewal. This comes barely two days before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court is scheduled to hear a petition by Menbooba’s daughter Iltija challenging the passport office’s decision to grant her a country-specific passport.
Delhi High Court’s ultimatum to passport authority
The Delhi High Court had in March this year asked the passport authority to take a decision within three months on issuing a new travel document to the PDP chief. Justice Pratibha M Singh, in an order in March, had said, “Considering that the matter has been remanded back to the passport officer and the initial rejection was two years ago, the passport officer concerned should be expeditiously and in any case not later than three months.” Let the decision be made within.” this year.
The court’s order came on Mehbooba’s plea seeking a direction to the passport authorities to expeditiously decide her appeal regarding issue of a new passport. The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said in her petition that despite reminders, there was considerable delay in issuing her a new passport. He said that no decision is being taken on his appeal.
The counsel for the Central Government had informed the court that an order on the appeal was passed on March 2 and the matter has been sent for reconsideration to the Passport Officer in J&K.
Mehbooba seeks EAM Jaishankar’s intervention
In February this year, Mehbooba sought External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s intervention to issue the passport, saying she had been waiting for it for the past three years to take her 80-year-old mother on a pilgrimage to Mecca. In March 2021, Mehbooba Mufti and her mother were denied passports by the Jammu and Kashmir Police citing “adverse reports”. Her mother applied for a passport in 2020 to make the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
In a letter dated February 20, the former CM flagged that his passport could not be issued in the last three years due to “adverse” reports from the J&K CID. Mufti said she even reached the JK High Court but her case “dragged on for three years”.
(With PTI inputs)