The Allahabad High Court has ruled that a conviction recorded against a person while he was a juvenile cannot be treated as a legal impediment to the issuance of a passport. The court emphasized that under Section 19 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, such convictions do not attract any disqualification.
Case Background
A division bench comprising Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Indrajeet Shukla was hearing a petition filed by Mohd Yunus Ansari. The petitioner had applied for a passport on January 29, 2020, but his application was rejected by the Regional Passport Officer in Lucknow on March 19, 2021. The rejection was based on an adverse police report citing a pending criminal case.
The authorities noted that the petitioner had been convicted in a rape and kidnapping case in 2010, when he was merely 16 years and 10 months old. He was tried as a juvenile by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in Gorakhpur and convicted in August 2013. However, the board placed him on a six-month probation, which he completed without any adverse reports. He was issued a character certificate by the district probation officer on March 20, 2014.
Court's Observations
The high court observed that the rejection order appeared to be the result of "sheer annoyance" at contempt proceedings the petitioner had previously initiated against the authorities for their delayed response. The court added that recording the pendency of a criminal case, when none existed, showed a completely non-serious attitude on the part of the authorities and was a "monument of non-application of mind."
Right to Be Forgotten
The bench emphasized that the "right to be forgotten" for juveniles is an absolute right that enables them to make a fresh start in life. The court noted that if any criminal antecedent record of a juvenile is allowed to remain intact, it may bring humiliation and discredit to the juvenile and adversely impact their future prospects.
"The thrust of the legislation is that even if a juvenile is convicted, the same should be obliterated, so that there is no stigma with regard to any crime committed by such person as a juvenile. This is with the clear object to re-integrate such juveniles into society without any stigma," the court observed.
Right to Travel Abroad
The high court strongly underscored that the right to travel abroad is an intrinsic part of personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. "Any restriction on the petitioner's right to hold a passport or travel abroad must satisfy the mandate of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, namely, fairness, reasonableness and proportionality. Denying a passport based on an erased juvenile record fails this constitutional threshold," the court stressed in its judgment dated May 7.
With these observations, the high court quashed the March 2021 order of the passport officer and directed the authorities to issue a passport to the petitioner, subject to compliance with other legal requirements.
