Madras High Court orders reissue of NTK leader Seeman’s lost passport

Observing that politicians would naturally have criminal cases pending against them and that, by itself, cannot be a ground to deny passport, the Madras High Court on Monday (July 21, 2025) directed the Regional Passport Officer in Chennai to reissue the lost passport of Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) leader S. Seeman within four weeks.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh allowed a writ petition filed by the party leader and quashed an order passed by the RPO refusing to reissue the passport. He pointed out that a Division Bench of the High Court had already held that the permission of criminal courts is not required to seek the renewal/reissuance of passports.

Individuals facing criminal cases would have to obtain the permission of the criminal court concerned only when they intend to travel abroad, the judge said and directed the RPO to process the petitioner’s application and reissue the passport within a month if the application was in order otherwise.

In his affidavit, Mr. Seeman stated he had been facing motivated criminal cases since 2008 and yet, he had been visiting many foreign countries to meet the Tamil diaspora. When the RPO refused to reissue his passport with additional pages in 2013, he had approached the High Court and obtained a favourable order.

However, when he planned to visit some neighbouring countries in September 2024, he found that he had lost his passport. Immediately, a police complaint was lodged and a Lost Document Report (LDR) was obtained on October 10, 2024. Thereafter, he applied for the reissuance of the passport in November 2024.

The RPO on January 31, 2025, refused to reissue the passport, the petitioner complained and contended he was not facing any serious charges and there was no likelihood of him absconding or evading the course of justice. Mere pendency of a few “motivated criminal cases” could not be a reason to deny passport, he argued.