Chennai, November 5: The Madras High Court has directed passport authorities to process the passport application of A.G. Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, within four weeks, after his application remained pending for nearly two years.
Justice P.T. Asha issued the direction while hearing a petition filed by Perarivalan, who approached the court seeking expeditious disposal of his passport application.
Perarivalan had applied for a fresh passport under the normal scheme on May 6, 2024, and attended his appointment at the Passport Seva Kendra on October 21, 2024. However, his application was kept on hold pending police verification.
Despite completing the required formalities and cooperating with the authorities, his application remained unresolved. He told the court that the prolonged delay was causing hardship and affecting his plans to travel abroad for higher studies.
The court observed that the passport authorities’ reluctance to process the application solely because they were awaiting a police verification report was unjustified, particularly since Perarivalan had already been set at liberty by the Supreme Court.
Justice Asha also referred to an earlier Supreme Court ruling in the Jawahar Rajan case, which clarified that the pendency of a criminal case is not an absolute bar to the issuance of a passport.
The High Court directed the authorities to treat the counter-affidavit filed by the Inspector of Police, Jolarpettai Police Station, as the police verification report and complete the processing of the application within four weeks from receipt of the court order.
Perarivalan was released by the Supreme Court on May 18, 2022, under Article 142 of the Constitution after spending more than three decades in prison in connection with the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
The ruling provides relief to Perarivalan, whose passport application had remained pending despite his release and completion of the required formalities.
