By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Thursday pulled up a passport office for delay in delivering the passport to an applicant and slapped a fine of Rs.50,000 on it.
The high court was hearing an appeal by the Regional Passport Office, Ghaziabad, challenging a Central Information Commission (CIC) order slapping a fine of Rs.5,000 on it.
Ajay Kumar Jain, a resident of Aligarh, had applied for his passport along with his wife and a child in 2006. He did not get the passport even after seven months and checked the status of his application on the official website which stated that his passport would be sent in the first week of April 2007.
Jain again checked the status on the website in July 2007 and he was told he had not given two specimen signatures, which he should send with attestation by a gazetted officer.
He then filed an application under the Right to Information Act in 2007, which did not reveal much details on why his passport was unnecessary delayed.
Jain then approached the CIC that directed the passport office to issue him the passport in a week and also slapped a fine of Rs.5,000 on the passport office.
The passport office challenged the order in the high court.
Justice Ravinder Bhatt Thursday held the passport office guilty of deficiency in service and of giving wrong information to the applicant, and increased the amount of fine from Rs.5,000 to Rs.50,000.