Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra, who was denied a new passport as he had been identified as an “absconder” in a police chargesheet, has got a no-objection certificate (NOC) from court “with regard to normal renewal of passport”.
Mahapatra had applied for the NOC after surrendering in an Alipore court on April 20 to secure bail in connection with the chargesheet, which was filed in the court in March 2018.
The chargesheet was based on an FIR lodged against the professor of chemistry in April 2016. He said he came to know about it when he was denied a passport renewal because of the chargesheet in 2023.
The additional chief judicial magistrate of the Alipore criminal court, where the chargesheet had been filed, said in its order on May 16: “Right to go abroad is a constitutional right of a person until the same is curtailed by any order of the court. As there is no negative order of this court, this order may be considered as no objection from this court with regard to normal renewal of passport of the petitioner/accused….”
The order also says: “The court has nothing to do with the passport of the accused in the case….”
Lawyer Sushil Chakraborty, who appeared for Mahapatra, said as the court has issued an NOC for normal renewal of passport, it is expected his client won’t have to apply for an annual renewal of passport.
“Since the court has mentioned normal renewal of passport, which means renewal for 10 years, the passport office is expected to act in accordance with what the court has ordered,” Chakraborty told The Telegraph.
Mahapatra, who had been arrested in 2012 for circulating an internet joke on chief minister Mamata Banerjee, had applied for a normal renewal of passport after the Supreme Court scrapped the section under which he was accused and a court absolved him in January.
“I will go to the Regional Passport Office with a copy of the May 16 order,” the professor said.