Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been granted a no objection certificate by a Delhi court for the issuance of a fresh passport. He had to surrender his diplomatic passport after losing his Lok Sabha membership due to a conviction in a defamation case.
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Vaibhav Mehta, approved the no objection certificate but limited its validity to three years instead of the requested ten years. The court did not agree with the argument presented by Swamy, who opposed the grant of an ordinary passport to Rahul, claiming that it could hinder the investigation in the National Herald case.
Rahul Gandhi approached the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi on Tuesday to request a new passport. In his plea, he mentioned that when he was granted bail in the National Herald case in 2015, no travel restrictions were imposed on him. However, due to his conviction and sentence in a 2019 criminal defamation case by a Gujarat court, he had to surrender his diplomatic passport. Consequently, he sought the issuance of a new passport.
Rahul specifically requested a normal passport as he plans to travel to the United States next month. His itinerary includes addressing the Indian diaspora at Madison Square Garden and engaging with students at Stanford University.
