Vikas Mishra, the disgraced passport officer denies rejecting a couples’ passport based on their interfaith marriage. The couple Mohammed Anas Siddiqui and Tanvi Seth went to the Lucknow passport office to apply for their passports.
The couple claim Mishra harassed them because of their interfaith marriage. Tanvi Seth tweeted Sushma Swaraj saying, “I tweet this with immense faith in justice and in you and ironically with a lot of anger/hurt and agony in my heart because of the way I was treated at the Lucknow passport office at Ratan Square by Mr. Vikas Mishra the reason because I married a Muslim and not changed my name ever.”
Regional passport officer Piyush Verma reported that Mr. Mishra was immediately transferred and a show cause notice was filed. However, Mishra’s story is a little different to the one given by Tanvi. Mr. Mishra explained, “(I) asked Tanvi Seth to get the name ‘Shadia Anas’ endorsed as it was mentioned on her Nikahnama, but she refused. We have to do thorough checks to ensure no person is changing their name to obtain passports.”
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) apologized to the couple and demanded a report on the case. Mr. Piyush Verma sent a detailed report of the case to the MEA.
In a tweet, the MEA said, “Regret for inconvenience. I sought report from @rpolucknow Will take appropriate action. (sic)” Article 25 of the Indian Constitution clearly grants the citizens of India the freedom to profess, practice and propagate their own religion. The Constitution vows to protect all the citizen’s liberty of faith, belief and worship.
