MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court granted relief to anti-nuclear activist and People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) convenor SP Udayakumar by directing the passport authorities to extend the validity of his passport from one to three years.
The order was passed by Justice GR Swaminathan recently on a petition filed by Udayakumar seeking direction to reissue his passport.
The deputy solicitor general, who appeared for the passport authorities, contended that Udayakumar's passport is valid up to March 2024 and thus the petition has been filed unnecessarily. He further pointed out that since Udayakumar has nearly 28 criminal cases pending against him, the authority can issue passport to him only for a period of one year.
However, the counsel representing the petitioner argued that certain countries do not issue visas if the passport's validity period is restricted to one year.
Hearing both sides, the judge observed that the very purpose of issuing passports is to enable the holder to travel abroad. He also noted that the criminal cases pending against the petitioner came to be registered for the agitation led by him protesting the establishment of Kudankulam nuclear power plant.
He also recalled that the Supreme Court had asked the government to consider dropping the said cases.
Further noting that the petitioner is a public activist operating in India and cannot be called a 'flight risk', the judge directed the authorities to extend the validity period of his passport from one to three years.