SRINAGAR, Jun 4: Sources said on Sunday that PDP president and former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti has been issued a passport with 10-year validity. The passport was given to Mehbooba following a protracted legal dispute in the Delhi High Court. 2019 saw the expiration of her travel document, and she has been applying for its renewal ever since.
It arrived just two days before Mehbooba’s daughter Iltija’s petition contesting the passport office’s decision to grant her a country-specific passport was scheduled to be heard in Jammu and Kashmir High Court.Mehbooba received a passport that is valid from June 1, 2023, to May 31, 2033. Mehbooba served as the final chief minister of the former Jammu and Kashmir state before it was divided in 2019.
The Delhi High Court ordered the passport agency to decide in March of this year whether to issue the PDP leader a new travel document within three months.
Justice Prathiba M. Singh had stated in the order in March of this year, “Considering that the matter is remanded back to the passport officer and the initial rejection was two years ago, let the passport officer concerned take a decision expeditiously and in any case within three months.”Mehbooba had asked the court to direct the passport officials to make a quick decision about her appeal over the granting of a new passport.
The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir claimed in her petition that despite reminders, there was a significant delay in giving her a new passport.
She stated that no decision had been made on her appeal.The passport officer in Jammu and Kashmir has been asked to reexamine the case, according to information provided to the court by the Central Government’s attorney on March 2.
Mehbooba asked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s help in February of this year to get the passport she needed to take her 80-year-old mother on a pilgrimage to Mecca. She claimed she had been waiting for it for the previous three years.
Mehbooba and her mother were refused passports in March 2021 as a result of the Jammu and Kashmir Police citing a “adverse report”.
