Dawood's sister's plea for new passport rejected

A petition by fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's sister Haseena Ibrahim Parker challenging Government's refusal to issue her a fresh passport was on Tuesday dismissed by the Delhi High Court.

Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw rejected Parker's plea on the ground that she did not appear in the court, either personally or through her counsel, to pursue it.

"None appeared for the petitioner (Parker). It seems she is not interested in pursuing the matter anymore," Justice Endlaw said while dismissing her petition. The court, however, made it clear that in case she decides to pursue the case, she can revive it by depositing Rs 15,000 in the account of the Delhi High Court Lawyers' Welfare Fund.

This was for the second time that the court dismissed Parker's plea on the ground of non-appearance. It had dismissed the plea earlier in April this year but had revived it in May on Parkar's request.

Parker had approached the Delhi High Court after the Centre, in December 2006, had rejected her application for a new passport on the ground that she is underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's sister.

Centre's counsel S K Dubey on Tuesday told the court that the government had refused to issue her a new passport as there were also four criminal cases pending against her at the time when she had applied for it.

One of the cases pertained to procuring the earlier passport on the basis of forged documents, the counsel said adding the Regional Passport Office in Mumbai, where she had applied for the new passport, claiming that she had lost the old one in February 2005, had rejected her plea as she had misled the passport authority by giving wrong names of her parents.