Procure furniture for Govt school: HC to woman who failed to deposit passport

The Delhi High Court has asked a 64-year-old woman, who failed to deposit her passport for over two years despite a 2024 trial court direction while granting anticipatory bail, to procure essential furniture or other items worth Rs 2 lakh for a Government school for the default.

The woman’s senior counsel tendered an apology to the high court for the “inadvertent lapse”, arguing that she never intended to derive any benefit from the non-surrender of her passport.

While seeking permission to travel to the United States of America for her son’s wedding, the woman’s senior counsel submitted that the passport was surrendered to the trial court in August and taken on record without any adverse action.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav agreed to grant relief to the petitioner considering her age, “candid tender of apology”, absence of any foreign travel during the period and the acceptance of her surrendered passport without demur, subject to a “proportionate and accountable condition”.

The judge allowed the petitioner to travel abroad for the specified time period and said such a relaxation, even in case of an admitted inadvertent default, cannot be granted without some countervailing measure.

The petitioner volunteered to supply furniture and other required items to a Government school as a “kind measure of accountability”, which was accepted by the court.

“As an initial step, the petitioner shall... get in touch with a Government school situated within the NCT of Delhi, communicate the substance of this order and request the school to indicate its requirement of essential furniture or other items, of a value of Rs 2,00,000, by way of a proportionate and voluntarily offered measure of community accountability in lieu of the default noted above,” the court said in the order passed on September 18. “The petitioner shall complete the process of donation, including the actual supply of the furniture or items so indicated, within four weeks of her return to India, and shall place compliance on record before the trial court through counsel,” it further said.

The court clarified that the petitioner shall surrender her passport before the trial court after her return.

The petitioner, represented by senior advocate Madhav Khurana and lawyer Nishaank Mattoo, was granted anticipatory bail by the trial court in 2024 in a case under Section 306 IPC concerning the death of her alleged employee by suicide in 2020.

While granting pre-arrest bail in 2024, the trial court had directed the petitioner to “forthwith” deposit the passport.

The trial court, on September 15, dismissed the petitioner’s application seeking temporary release of her passport to enable her to travel abroad, stating that there was an unconditional direction to surrender the passport “forthwith”, and the delay of over 27 months in complying with the direction was without explanation.