A G Perarivalan
“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. His application was pending with the authorities for more than two years, according to the petitioner. 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. The court passed the order on a plea moved Perarivalan seeking expeditious disposal of his pending passport application. 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.
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.