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The High Court has declared illegal two Home Ministry directives requiring intelligence clearance for former Supreme Court judges seeking ordinary passports after retirement.
The court said the requirement was “unjustified and baseless”, noting that judges are granted diplomatic passports during their tenure after their status and identity have already been verified by the state.
A bench of Justice Fahmida Kader and Justice Asif Hasan delivered the judgment on September 2, with the full verdict published on Wednesday.
The court ordered authorities to issue and hand over ordinary passports to former Supreme Court judges, including former Appellate Division judge Mohammad Imman Ali, and their spouses without any additional intelligence verification.
Under the previous practice, retired or resigned Supreme Court judges were required to surrender their diplomatic passports and apply for ordinary passports, without needing intelligence reports.
However, a Home Ministry memorandum issued on August 22, 2024, made satisfactory reports from two intelligence agencies mandatory before ordinary passports could be issued to diplomatic passport holders.
Former Appellate Division judge Mohammad Imman Ali surrendered his diplomatic passport and applied for an ordinary passport on November 3, 2024. But he was unable to obtain the passport due to the lack of intelligence clearance, preventing him from travelling abroad.
The issue was challenged in a writ petition filed by Supreme Court Protocol Officer Md Roman Bhuiyan, with permission from the Registrar General of the Supreme Court. The High Court later issued a rule and disposed of it through the judgment.