After three years, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was granted a passport. This comes after a New Delhi court ordered the authorities in March to make a decision on her travel documents within three months.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief’s passport had expired in 2019, and she had applied for its renewal in 2020, following the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
Mufti claimed that authorities had also denied her 80-year-old mother’s passport due to an adverse report by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The couple intended to make a religious pilgrimage to Mecca.
Daughter of Mehbooba, Iltija Mufti said. “My mother received her passport after three years. She had applied in 2020.” Mufti, 64, was issued a regular passport valid for ten years, as opposed to her daughter Iltija’s restricted passport valid for two years and only for one country — the UAE. According to Iltija, Mufti received the passport just before the Delhi court’s deadline.
“A Delhi court had given three months’ time to the passport office here which were about to expire. They dispatched her passport before that,” she said.
In addition to Mufti, her mother Gulshan Ara’s passport was issued two months ago. “My grandmother received it as well, and my regular passport is now pending,” she explained.
In March, a Delhi court ordered passport authorities to issue Mufti travel documents within three months. “Given that the case has been remanded to the passport officer and that the initial rejection was two years ago, let the passport officer concerned make a decision expeditiously and, in any case, within three months,” Justice Prathiba M Singh had said.