Passport Act -- short title,definitions and Passport document

An Act to provide for the issue of passports & travel documents, to regulate the departure from India of citizens of India & other persons & for matters incidental/ ancillary thereto. Be it enacted by Parliament in the Eighteenth Year of the Republic of India as follow:—

 

1. Short title & extent

 

(1) This Act may be called the Passports Act, 1967. (2) It extends to the whole of India & applies also to citizens of India who are outside India.

 

2. Definitions

 

In this Passport Act, unless the context otherwise requires,— (a) “departure”, with its grammatical variations & cognate expressions, means a departure from India by water, land/air; (b) “passport” means a passport issued/deemed to have been issued under this Act; (c) “passport authority” means an officer or authority empowered under rules made under this Act to issue passports/travel documents and includes the Central Govt.; (d) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Passport Act; (e) “travel document” means a travel document issued/deemed to have been issued under this Act.

 

3. Passport/travel document for departure from India

 

No person shall depart from, / attempt to depart from India unless he holds on this behalf a valid passport card/travel document. Explication.—For the purposes of this section,— (a) “passport” card includes a passport which having been issued by/under the authority of the Govt. of a foreign country satisfies the conditions prescribed under the Passport i.e. Entry into India Passport Act, 1920 (34 of 1920), in respect of the class of passport card to which it belongs; (b) “travel document” includes a travel document which having been issued by/under the authority of the Govt. of a foreign country satisfy the conditions prescribed.

 

4. Classes of passports & travel documents.—

 

(1) The following classes of passports may be issued under this Passport Act, namely:

(a) ordinary passport; (b) Official passport; (c) diplomatic passport.

 

(2) The following classes of travel documents may be issued under this Passport Act, namely: 

(a)The emergency certificate authorizes a person to enter India.

(b) Certificate of id for the purpose of establishing the id of a person.

(c) Such other certificate/document as may be prescribed.

 

(3) The Central Govt. shall, in consonance with the usage & practice followed by it in this behalf, prescribe the classes of persons to whom the classes of passport card & travel documents referred to respectively in sub-section (1) sub-section (2) may be issued under this Passport Act.

 

5. Refusal of passports, travel documents, etc.—

 

(1) Subject to the other provisions of this Passport Act, the passport card authority shall refuse to make an endorsement for visiting any foreign country under the clause of sub-section.

 

(2) Of section five on anyone / more of the following grounds & on no other ground, namely:—

 

(a) That the presence of the candidate in such a country may, / is likely to, being detrimental to the security of India.

(b) That is the opinion of the Central Govt. the presence of the candidate in such country is not in the public interest.

(c) That a warrant/summons for the appearance, / a warrant for the arrest, of the candidate have been issued by a court under any law for the time being in force / that an order prohibiting the departure from India of the candidate has been made by any such court.

(d) That’s the opinion of the Central Govt. the problem of a passport/travel document to the candidate will not be in the public interest.