No passport in hand, Navi Mumbai man stuck in Cyprus due to cases pending in Andheri court

If the passport is not renewed before his work visa in Cyprus expires on November 23, he risks the ignominy of being deported, the petitioner, 59-year-old Brahma Mall, has said in his plea in the HC

Mumbai: A Cyprus-based marine engineer, originally a resident of Nerul in Navi Mumbai, has approached the Bombay High Court, saying the renewal of his passport is held up due to two seven-year-old criminal cases against him. If the passport is not renewed before his Alien Registration Card (ARC) or work visa in Cyprus expires on November 23, he risks the ignominy of being deported, the petitioner, 59-year-old Brahma Mall, has said in his plea.

No passport in hand, Navi Mumbai man stuck in Cyprus due to cases pending in Andheri court

Mall’s petition seeks a direction to the magistrate court in Andheri, where his application seeking permission for passport renewal is pending, to decide his plea urgently. If he is deported on account of an immigration lapse, he would “face immense hardship” in vacating his rented accommodation and closing contractual obligations, the petition says.

Mall, a project manager at a shipping company in Cyprus, is accused of cheating and criminal breach of trust, among other offences, based on private complaints by Proactive Crewing and Offshore Services and Advent Marine and Shipping Services before the magistrate. While the cases against him were registered in 2018, no summons have been issued to him so far and inquires into the cases have also been rejected by the magistrate, said Mall’s lawyer Swapana Kode.

In his plea before the high court filed in September, Mall says that he had secured a police clearance for his Cyprus work visa in 2022 without any issues. The alleged cases from 2018 had not even surfaced then, he said. He learnt about the cases from the Nerul Police Station tasked with the verification of his passport.

At the time of renewing his ARC, he needs to have a passport with a six-month validity, Mall says in his plea. Since his passport expires in May 2026 and the process of renewal would take at least a month, he first applied for its renewal in July, when he also submitted his old passport. He learnt about the pending criminal proceedings against him on July 22, at the police verification stage of his passport renewal by the Indian Embassy in Nicosia. He subsequently approached the magistrate court in Andheri, where the criminal case was pending, seeking permission to renew his passport. Though his application was listed for hearing on 12 occasions between August 25 and September 29, he was not granted any relief, his petition in the high court says.

Mall’s plea is likely to be heard by the high court on Tuesday.

‘Should not create bureaucratic impediments’

While Mall’s case may be peculiar, the Bombay High Court last month came to the rescue of 76-year-old Sharad Khatu, whose passport renewal was held up as the online records with the police showed a criminal offence was pending against him since 1990. Khatu, who wished to travel to Dubai to see his son and grandchildren, had applied for renewal of his passport on November 31, 2022. He was then informed that a criminal offence against him was pending at the MRA Marg Police Station.

Khatu made inquiries about the case at the police station and the magistrate court at Ballard Pier. In September 2024, he also sought information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. All of these showed that there was no criminal offence pending against him. He then moved the high court seeking relief.

The passport authorities and the state government both informed the court that no offence was pending against Khatu. The court said Khatu “was forced to lose precious time” because the police’s online portal incorrectly indicated that a case was pending against him.

Justices MS Sonak and Advait Sethna directed the authorities to process Khatu’s passport renewal application afresh and swiftly. They also asked them to delete the incorrect entry in their online records that showed an offence against Khatu.

The judges said that the Supreme Court had held that the right to travel abroad was a fundamental right. “..unnecessary bureaucratic impediments must not be created to frustrate this precious right,” the court said in its October 14 order.