The High Court of Karnataka has emphasized that neither the police nor the criminal court have the authority to seize or impound a passport using powers granted under Sections 102 or 104 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Consequently, the court recently invalidated the order issued by the Debt Recovery Tribunal-1 in Bengaluru, which had confiscated the passport of Nitin Shambhukumar Kasliwal, a businessman hailing from Mumbai.

The court clarified that while the Tribunal possesses powers akin to those of a civil court, since a civil court itself lacks the authority to impound a passport, the Debt Recovery Tribunal is similarly barred from exercising such jurisdiction.

The case traces its origins to 1999, when Kasliwal entered into an agreement benefiting multiple lenders for secured loans. Subsequently, in 2015, the banks that extended the loans initiated legal proceedings before the Debt Recovery Tribunal, aiming for repayment. In the event of default, they sought to attach and sell off properties owned by Kasliwal and his business entities.

The banks submitted an application requesting the surrender of Kasliwal's passport. On April 16, 2015, the Tribunal issued an order retaining his passport. Following this, whenever Kasliwal was required to travel overseas, he lodged applications and, in exchange, surrendered his passport to the Tribunal as per the required procedure.

In December 2016, he sought the release of his passport to renew it before its expiration, but his application was denied. Consequently, he approached the High Court, seeking relief in this matter.

Kasliwal's petition was presented before Justice M Nagaprasanna, who delivered the judgment on December 6, 2023.

"The issue is, whether the Tribunal can direct withholding of passport of any person in terms of the power ascribed under the provisions quoted hereinabove. The answer would be an unequivocal and emphatic 'NO'," the court said in its judgement.

"The Passport Act holds precedence as a specialized law, thereby superseding any power vested in either civil or criminal courts to retain or confiscate a passport."

Ordering the Tribunal to release the passport of Kasliwal, the court said, "The very act of the Tribunal in directing surrender of the passport of a citizen or its detention before it, would amount to impounding of the passport. Such power is unavailable to the Tribunal."