MADURAI: The
Madurai bench of the
Madras high court on Wednesday directed the regional
passport officer (Madurai) to file a counter to a petition filed by human rights activist
Irom Chanu Sharmila seeking a passport for her.
When Sharmila’s petition came up for hearing before Justice P Rajamanickam, her counsel told the court that the civil right activist had settled in Kodaikanal in Dindigul district after marrying Desmond Anthony Bellarmine.
She continues to raise her voice for women and children in her home state,
Manipur. She has been invited to deliver speeches in some programmes outside the country. For that, she applied for passport on October 6 last year. However, the passport authority did not issue a passport to her. When she asked about it, the passport officer informed her that the Kodaikanal police were yet to submit a police verification report, the counsel said.
The counsel said as she had been protesting against the government, a criminal case was registered against her in 2015 for the offence of attempt to commit suicide. The same had been pending before the chief judicial magistrate court in Imphal West, Manipur. However, the competent criminal court on February 29, 2016 discharged her from the case.
After verifying her antecedence and the cases lodged against her, the superintendent of police of Imphal East district, Manipur, issued a certificate on December 23, 2016 stating that there was no criminal case against her. “Thus, she does not suffer any disqualification under the provisions of the Passport Act, 1967,” he said.
Sharmila has to participate in a convention in Geneva where she has to speak on violation of human rights in Sri Lanka and on the violation of rights of children in other parts of the world. Hence it was necessary to issue a direction to the Kodaikanal police to submit the report to the passport officer and also direct the passport officer to issue her passport, the counsel said.
The court adjourned the case to March 21.
Human rights activist Irom Chanu Sharmila (File photo)
