CHENNAI: Madras high court has directed the Chennai regional passport office to dispose of the passport application made by A G Perarivalan, former life convict in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, within four weeks.“Considering the fact that the petitioner has been set at liberty by the Supreme Court, the reluctance on the part of the passport authority to process the petitioner’s passport application, solely on the ground that they were awaiting the report of the police department is not correct,” Justice P T Asha said.The court passed the order on a plea moved Perarivalan seeking expeditious disposal of his pending passport application. According to the petitioner, his application was pending with the authorities for more than two years.Despite cooperating fully and completing all necessary formalities, his application has remained pending and undisposed for nearly two years. Therefore, the petitioner submitted a representation on Sept 1, to the authorities requesting speedy disposal of his application; however, no action has been taken on the representation, his counsel said.He added that this prolonged, unexplained inaction by the authorities is causing him grave hardship, especially as it delays his plan to travel abroad for higher studies.Citing an order passed by the full bench of the Supreme Court in Jawahar Rajan case, the court said the apex court had made it clear that the pendency of a criminal case would not be an absolute bar to the issuance of a passport.The court then directed the passport authorities to consider the counter affidavit filed by the Jolarpet police as the police verification report and dispose of the petitioner’s application.
