BENGALURU: The High Court of Karnataka has ruled that the Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) have no power to impound passports.
They can hardly have such power. The very act of directing people to surrender passports or detention would amount to their impounding. Such power is not given to the tribunals, the high court said.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed this order while directing a tribunal to release the passport of petitioner Nitin Shambhukumar Kasliwal from Mumbai.
Retention of the passport by the tribunal can hardly be justified under the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act under which it functions much less under the provisions of the Act that are invoked by the banks, the court said.
The civil court or the criminal court has no power to impound passports. Section 102 or 104 of the CrPC empowers the police to seize and the court to impound any document.
The petitioner moved the high court seeking the release of his passport as the DRT had passed an order seeking its surrender acting on an application by the banks.
Accordingly, he surrendered his passport on April 5, 2016. As and when required, the petitioner filed applications seeking permission from the tribunal to travel and surrendered the passport on his return.