Tanvi Seth's Passport Cleared As Per Rules After Police Verification, Lucknow RPO Says No Criminal Case Against Inter-Faith Couple
The Lucknow PRO said that there are no averse remarks against Tanvi Seth and since there is no criminal record, the passport has been cleared.
Lucknow, July 4: The regional passport officer of Lucknow on Tuesday cleared the passport of Tanvi Seth, who had accused a Lucknow passport officer Vikas Mishra of humiliating her and her husband over their inter-faith marriage. Sources aware of Tanvi Seth-Anas Siddiqui passport issue said all procedures were followed and the applicant had fulfilled the desired requirements.
Reports inform that the adverse police report does not stand ground as Government notification of May 21 clearly says police verification is done only to ascertain nationality and to check whether the applicant has any criminal record and it's not done to check name or address.
The Lucknow PRO said that there are no adverse remarks against Tanvi Seth and since there is no criminal record, the passport has been cleared. Meanwhile, the RPO said there is no criminal case against the Lucknow couple. Officials of the passport office said the passport of Lucknow couple has been cleared as per new passport laws.
In June, passport officer Vikas Mishra had refused to grant Tanvi a passport because she was married to a Muslim and had not changed her surname. Reports inform that her husband passport was not renewed either, and it was kept on hold.
On June 28, the External Affairs Ministry had informed that police verification report on the passport of Tanvi Seth was under examination. "Police verification report in respect of Tanvi Seth has been received. We are examining the report. Our passport officers are empowered to take necessary action as per the Passport Act," MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters in response to a question.
According to reports, Seth and her husband Mohammad Anas Siddiqui have been married for 12 years. The couple wrote about their ordeal on micro-blogging site Twitter tagging Sushma Swaraj on June 20.
The couple had alleged that passport department official Vikas Mishra asked Siddiqui to convert to Hinduism and pulled up Seth for marrying a Muslim when they went there to file passport applications. On June 21, the Regional Passport Office in Lucknow transferred Mishra and issued passports to the couple.
In its report, the Uttar Pradesh Police had said that Seth had not been living in Lucknow for the past one year. According to the police verification report sent to the Regional Passport Office (RPO), Seth has been residing in Noida.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 04, 2018 12:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).