New Delhi: The Madras High Court has ruled a woman does not need her husband’s signature or permission in any form to apply for a passport, underlining she does not lose her individuality after marriage.
“The practice of insisting on permission from the husband to apply for a passport, does not augur well for a society which is moving towards woman emancipation. This practice is nothing short of male supremacism,” a single-judge bench of Justice N. Anand Venkatesh said in a ruling on 18 June.
The high court was hearing a plea filed by a woman, J. Revathy, who had approached the court, seeking a direction to authorities to issue her a fresh passport in a timely manner without insisting on her husband’s signature.
Revathy got married in 2023 and had a daughter with her husband the next year. But a marital dispute arose between the couple and the man filed a marriage dissolution
plea before an Alandur court under the Hindu Marriage Act.
While the husband’s plea is still pending, Revathy applied for a passport before the Regional Passport Office in Chennai in April this year. But when there was no progress, she enquired about it and found out her application could be processed only after she obtains her husband’s signature.
Revathy moved the high court against this.
Also Read: What Madras HC said while upholding Tamil Nadu’s night ban on real money gaming
Passport officer insistence ‘shocking’
Hearing the plea, the high court said the petitioner’s passport application “has to be processed independently”. A wife doesn’t need to get her husband’s permission, or take his signature, before applying for her passport, the court observed.
The court added that the Chennai Regional Passport Office’s insistence on getting the husband’s permission showed a mindset that treats a married woman “as if they are chattel belonging to the husband”.
“It is quite shocking that the passport office is insisting on the permission of the husband and his signature in a particular form in order to process the application submitted by the petitioner for the passport,” the court said.
It observed that the relationship between the petitioner and her husband was already “in doldrums”, and the passport office expecting her to get her husband’s signature virtually meant authorities were asking her to meet an “impossibility”.
Terming the practice of seeking the husband’s permission as “nothing short of male supremacism”, the court went on to direct the Regional Passport Office to process Revathy’s application and issue her a passport, satisfying the other requirement, within four weeks of the order.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: ‘Self-pleasure not forbidden fruit’ & wife watching porn not grounds for divorce, says Madras HC