Lucknow Passport Office Clears Interfaith Couple’s Passports

“We can’t consider this as an adverse case,” said Lucknow Regional Passport Officer, Piyush Verma.

The Regional Passport Office in Lucknow has cleared the passports issued to interfaith couple, Tanvi Seth and Anas Siddiqui, who were mired in controversy after they alleged that they were shamed by a passport officer in Lucknow for their interfaith marriage.

Speaking to The Quint, Regional Passport Officer (RPO), Piyush Verma said, “The couple has submitted all the documents and after scrutiny we have cleared their passports.”

Verma further added that there seems to be no further issue and the matter has been resolved.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also said in a statement that all existing norms were followed during the issue of passport to Ms Tanvi Seth.

Tanvi Seth had submitted her Aadhaar Card and a joint bank account as a proof for her name and address, which was the same as mentioned in the application form.  Therefore, the issue of passport to Tanvi Seth was found in the order based on the existing rules.

MEA

However, earlier on 26 June, Lucknow police had sent a report to the Regional Passport Office saying that Seth had not been living in Lucknow for the past one year and was residing in Noida.

Senior Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar had also said that Seth didn’t follow the rules while filling the application.

But while speaking to The Quint, RPO Verma said:

We can’t consider this as an adverse case as no adverse report has been submitted by the police who conducted a verification of the couple under the Ministry of External Affairs guidelines. 

Piyush Verma, Regional Passport Officer

Under the new MEA rules, which came into force in June, the police verification is confined to criminal background and citizenship.

Verma said since Seth doesn’t have any criminal background she is eligible for the passport and her husband’s case was just that of reissue, so there seems to be no issue.

Incident in Question

On 20 June, Tanvi Seth took to Twitter to say that the couple was humiliated by passport officer, Vikas Mishra. The couple had also alleged they were targeted and their application was stuck because of the officer’s behaviour.

Following the allegations, the officer was then transferred to Gorakhpur. Speaking to The Quint, Piyush Verma confirmed that Vikas Mishra continues to be in Gorakhpur and hasn’t been called back.

Meanwhile, Vikas Mishra, the accused passport officer had denied any wrongdoing and said that he was just doing his duty.

(With inputs from PTI)