SRINAGAR: A Srinagar court Thursday issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) for issuing a passport to former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah, observing that mere pendency of criminal proceedings does not automatically bar a person from obtaining the travel document.CBI had objected to Farooq’s application seeking the court’s NOC for passport, stating that charges have been framed against him in the Jammu Kashmir Cricket Association case and “there is a strong apprehension that he may settle abroad and flee the clutches of law”.The court of additional sessions judge, however, ordered that the NOC be issued to the Srinagar passport officer with the direction to consider the issuance of the passport for a period of one year, subject to the condition that the petitioner is not involved in any offence other than the JKCA case.The court further said Farooq shall seek prior permission from the Srinagar chief judicial magistrate’s court for travelling outside J&K or abroad.Farooq had stated in his application that the regional passport office asked him to furnish an acquittal order in the JKCA case or an NOC from the court following an adverse police report against him.The NC president argued that since the trial in the case was stayed on April 25, he is not in a position to secure acquittal order and should be granted an NOC. The court rejected CBI’s contention that an MEA notification bars issuing passports to a person against whom a criminal case is pending before a court. The MEA notification does not impose an “absolute prohibition”, but is regulatory in nature and is “designed to harmonise personal liberty with the due administration of criminal justice”, the court observed.
