Prayagraj: The Allahabad high court has ruled that if a competent criminal court grants a no-objection certificate or permission to travel abroad to a person accused in a criminal case without specifying the passport’s validity period, the passport authority can issue a passport valid for only one year.Disposing of a writ petition filed by one Rahimuddin, a division bench comprising Justices Ajit Kumar and Swarupama Chaturvedi observed, “Where no specific period is stated in the order of the competent court, the passport may be issued for one year at a time and the said period can be extended by way of renewal as per law if the application is made before the authorities, provided that the applicant has not yet travelled abroad during the court-sanctioned period and that the court’s order has not been modified or revoked in the meantime.”In the present case, the petitioner had sought re-issuance of a 10-year passport based on an NOC granted by the chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Pilibhit.A criminal case under section 447 (criminal trespass) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 was pending against the petitioner. The petitioner approached the CJM court, which granted him an NOC on Oct 10, 2024. Following the NOC, the regional passport office, Bareilly, issued a passport valid for one year (Jan 20, 2025, to Jan 19, 2026).However, the petitioner later sought renewal for a full 10-year period. He argued that once the permission had been granted by the competent court, the statutory period prescribed under the Passport Act 1967, should apply.The passport authority contended that since the court order did not specify any duration for which the passport was to be issued, the validity was rightly restricted to one year in line with the notification dated Aug 25, 1993, issued by the MEA.After hearing both sides, the court passed this decision on Oct 10, which came to light on Tuesday.