Court issues show cause notice to Chief Passport Officer

A special court today issued a show cause notice to the Chief Passport Officer of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to explain what action has been taken in connection with the passport of an accused seized by CBI during its probe in a coal blocks allocation case.
The court order came after it failed to get a satisfactory reply from MEA's counsel who said no action has been taken yet by passport authorities on the seized passport of accused Manoj Jayaswal, though the agency had earlier informed the court that it had sent the passport to Nagpur office for the purpose of impounding.

The court wanted to know under "what circumstances" the concerned authorities were "siting over the matter" for last five-six months.
Jayaswal, director of Nagpur-based AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd, has been facing prosecution in a coal scam case in which CBI has chargesheeted him along with Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devendra Darda and the firm as accused for offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of IPC and under Prevention of Corruption Act.
The court was hearing Jayaswal's plea seeking release of his passport seized by the CBI during investigation. The court pulled up the passport authorities for sitting over the matter for last five-six months and not taking any further action.

"It was imperative on passport authority to take action and they cannot simply sit over the matter and chose not to take any decision.
"Under these circumstances let a show cause notice be issued to the Chief Passport Officer Muktesh K Pardeshi whom I have been told is the overall incharge of all the passport offices to explain all the circumstances regarding seizure of passport of Manoj Jayaswal and what action has been taken.
"If no action has been taken, under what circumstances the concerned authorities are sitting over the matter," the judge said in his order.