MEA says passport to Tanvi issued as per all existing norms

By India News Stream Staff
July 5, 2018
New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) said here today that it followed all existing norms in issuing passport to Tanvi Seth.
Seth had accused Lucknow passport officer Vikas Misra of harassing
her over her chosing a Muslim, Anas Siddiqui, to marry, and she had also alleged that the officer had asked her husband to convert to Hinduism.
”Passport was issued to Ms. Seth after careful examination of the documents submitted and following due process as per the Passport Act,” MEA Spokesperson Ravish Kumar said while replying to a question at the weekly media briefing here.
He explained in detail the whole episode, saying this would put at rest all the misinformation being given in media.
The Police Verification report sent to RPO Lucknow was to be based on a decision taken in December 2017 that PV will be undertaken only on two points – whether the applicant is a citizen of India and whether the applicant has any criminal case pending against him or her.
These two aspects were converted in to a six point PV form. This decision was communicated to the DGPs of all states and UTs to implement the PV norms from 1 June 2018, Kumar said.
In the Tanvi Seth case, he underlined, there was no adverse report on all six points mentioned in the revised form, but the police officer doing the verification added two comments on his own based on which the PV report was put under adverse category.
One of these two points was that the name of the applicant in the passport form was Tanvi Seth while in her marriage certificate her name was Sadia Anas, and the second was a discrepancy in her address on the ground that her rental address in NOIDA is not mentioned in the PP form by the applicant.
Dismissing these objections of the police officer, the Spokesperson said that under the revised passport application rules, there is no requirement for submission of a marriage certificate at the time of application of passport. Therefore, the name in the marriage certificate is not relevant to the issue of passport.
As far as address was concerned,Tanvi Seth had submitted her Aadhar 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 order based on the existing rules. I hope this clarifies the matter and puts to rest all misinformation in this regard,” Kumar said.
The Lucknow passport officer was subsequently transferred to Gorakhpur, following which External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was trolled on Twitter. She was accused of appeasing Muslims.