Actor Kangana Ranaut had approached the airport authorities to get her passport renewed as it would expire on the 15th of September 2021 and she needed to fly to Hungary to complete the shooting that had been pending for the second schedule of her upcoming film, “Dhakkad”. It has been alleged by her that the airport authority had verbally refused to renew her passport due to the FIRs pending against her. The actor, therefore, approached the Hon’ble Bombay High Court and pleaded through her lawyer that the airport authorities be judicially directed to renew her passport.
The case was being heard by the Hon’ble division bench comprising Hon’ble Justice SS Shinde and Hon’ble Justice Revati Mohite Dere. While looking into the issue with the utmost care, the Hon’ble Judges were informed by the Additional Solicitor General that the facts mentioned in the plea filed by Ranaut were incorrect. The passport authority had not rejected her request only based on FIRs but also the criminal cases pending against her. This was a piece of important information that had been concealed by the actor in her petition, as reported by Advocate Anil Singh, appearing in the defense of the airport authorities.
The Additional Solicitor General also mentioned that the passport renewal authorities were ready to look into the matter and review their decision regarding the renewal but only if the correct and complete facts were produced by the counsel of the petitioner. To this, the advocate representing Kangana responded that there were only FIRs and no cases pending against her. Therefore, the authorities should renew her passport with immediate effect. The directions to implement the same has been sought from the court by the counsel representing the actor.
After listening to the learned arguments submitted by both the counsels and taking into consideration the circumstances explained by both sides, the Hon’ble division bench came to the judgement that the passport authorities could be asked to consider the renewal and carry out the entire procedure following proper guidelines, rules, and laws as per concerned statutes. However, the same would be directed only after the learned counsel, appearing on behalf of Kangana Ranaut would be successful in producing all the required factual data in the asked manner to the passport authorities. Thus, the petition of the actor had been disposed of by the Hon’ble court.
