Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra, who was denied a new passport as he had been identified as an “absconder” in a police chargesheet and had to secure a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the court for the document, has been reissued a passport.
The regional passport office reissued the passport, which will be valid for a year, last week, said Mahapatra on Wednesday.
Mahapatra had applied for the NOC after surrendering in the Alipore court on April 20 in connection with the chargesheet, which was filed in the court in March 2018.
The professor is now getting ready to apply for an American visa, so he could visit his daughters, who are pursuing higher studies in the US.
Mahapatra said that although the Alipore court had issued an NOC with regard to the normal renewal of a passport (10-year duration), he has been given a passport that is valid for a year.
“After getting the NOC from the court, I applied to the regional passport office for renewal of my passport. To the application I had attached a copy of the court order, which stated that this may be considered as an NOC,” Mahapatra told The Telegraph.
“But the passport office renewed the passport for one year, instead of 10 years as mentioned in the court order," he said.
He wrote to the passport office on June 15 asking why he was denied a 10-year passport.
Regional passport officer Ashis Mridha told this newspaper: “The passport has been issued according to the instructions of the honourable court.”
A source in the passport office said: “We receive many court orders where it is mentioned that the passport validity should be of 10 years. In regard to a person with a criminal case… if the court does not specify the number of years, the passport is issued for a year. In the order on Ambikesh Mahaparta, 10 years was not mentioned.”
Mahapatra said he had specified in his petition in the Alipore court that by normal renewal, he was seeking a passport that would be valid for 10 years.
“The court gave its order based on the petition,” he said.
Mahaparta, who had been arrested in 2012 for circulating an internet joke on chief minister Mamata Banerjee, had applied for a normal renewal after the Supreme Court scrapped the section under which he was accused and a court absolved him in January.