Gujarat High Court Allows Single Mother's Plea For Passport Renewal Of Minor Children Without Father's NOC

The Gujarat High Court allowed a plea moved by a divorced woman seeking renewal of passport of her minor children which was denied by the passport authority on the ground that the father's no-objection certificate was absent. Justice LS Pirzada noted that it was not in dispute that decree of divorce had already been obtained by the mother and father; they subsequently got divorced and Memorandum of Understanding was executed between them as per which custody of the minor children was to be with the mother.The court also noted that as per Section 4(3) of the Schedule-II of the Passport Rules, 1980, a single parent who is separated, but not formally divorced, is also eligible to endorse consent to prefer an application and get a passport for the minors. It noted that apparently by way of abundant caution that the authority has indicated that the passport could not be granted unless there is consent of any of the parent or if there was a Court order. The high court however noted that in the present case the parents were divorced and there was also an MoU between them over custody. "considering the same, the petitioner no.3 (mother) has applied for renewal of the passport and the same was rejected by the respondent no.1 on the ground that the father's consent or No Objection for minors' passports has not been produced along with the application form. Considering the above, this Court is inclined to allow the present petition and the same is hereby allowed," the court said. The court directed the Regional Passport Officer to consider the mother's application dated 11.07.2025 "as a single parent" and renew the passports of both the minor children as expeditiously as possible, preferably within 1 week from the date of high court's order. The court was hearing the mother's plea seeking renewal of passports of her minor children without obtaining No Objection certificate (NOC) from the respondent father. The mother submitted that she and the respondent father were married but eventually got divorced through mutual understanding as per 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act. The family court passed the decree of divorce on 10.08.2022. It is submitted that the Memorandum of Understanding was executed between the respondent no.2 (father) and the petitioner no.3 (mother). As per this the two minor children are in the custody of the mother. It is further submitted that passports of the minor children are required to be renewed as one of them has to appear in the SAT examination and accordingly, at the time of filling up the form, the copy of the passport is required. When the petitioners approached the passport authority, it denied request for renewal on the ground that No Objection of the father has not been obtained and same was communicated to the mother on 12.08.2025. It was submitted that it is not possible to secure the consent of the father at this stage and in absence of his consent, if the passports are not renewed, the minor daughter has to suffer a lot. It was requested that the passports are renewed without consent of the husband.The petition was allowed.Case title: X & ORS. v/s REGIONAL PASSPORT OFFICE AHMEDABAD & ANRR/SCA NO. 14738 of 2025Click Here To Read/Download Order Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (Guj) 182

Gujarat High Court Allows Single Mother's Plea For Passport Renewal Of Minor Children Without Father's NOC

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