According to new rules, police verification will be done after the passport has been issued, subject to availability of necessary paperwork.
Melbourne resident, Sukhdeep Singh gets rancorous recalling his experience of going through the red tape in India to get a police verification for his wife’s passport.
“We were made to go from one official to another, from one table to another, from one office to another. It seemed, no one was willing to do their duty. It was a terrible experience.”
Sukhdeep’s wife had applied for a ‘tatkal’ passport that required a police verification. According to him, he and his wife spent three days trying to get it, but police officials at police station in Khanna, his home town, were simply aloof.
However, that has changed now. India’s foreign ministry announced liberalization of the police verification procedure last month.
According to the new process, police verification will be done after issuance of passport, in case of first time passport applicants who submit Aadhaar Card, Voter identity card, PAN card and a notarized affidavit with the application.
This is expected to significantly reduce the time taken to issue a passport. Rakesh Aggarwal, the Regional Passport Officer, Chandigarh told SBS Radio that a normal passport will now be issued within 3-4 days if all required documents are submitted, instead of the standard four weeks.
“Besides submitting the necessary documents, the first time applicants have to give an affidavit declaring they do not have any criminal antecedents. In such cases, the police verification will be done after passport is issued.”
However, Mr. Aggarwal also stressed that the staff at the passport office will have to be more vigilant in verifying the documents submitted by applicants to minimize the chances of unscrupulous elements being able to exploit the liberalized procedure.
"In cases where we recieve negative police report, we will issue notice and cancel the passport."
Sukhdeep Singh, who has his parents living in India, has welcomed the reform.
“It’s a good move that will save people the unnecessary hassle.”
Mr. Aggarwal says post-police verification process enabled faster process will reduce the reliance on Tatkal process that used to be the resort for those in need of a passport quickly.
