Authorities clear passport of woman allegedly harassed for being in an inter-faith marriage in Lucknow

The passport of Tanvi Seth, who was allegedly “harassed” by an official at the Lucknow Passport Seva Kendra last month, was cleared on Monday. As there is no criminal case against the couple, the passport was cleared, reported News18.

#BREAKING - Passport of Lucknow couple cleared as per new laws. No criminal case against them: Passport office. #SushmaPassportVictory pic.twitter.com/5ILnGqWRUS

— News18 (@CNNnews18) July 4, 2018

On 20 June, in a series of tweets directed at External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Tanvi Seth claimed she was ill-treated by a passport officer named Vikas Mishra because she married a Muslim and did not change her name. The officer was transferred after Seth’s tweet. Seth claimed that though her documents were complete, her file was stopped. Mishra reportedly insulted Siddiqui and asked him to convert to Hinduism in order to ensure his reissue request was processed. “He told Anas to convert to Hinduism for his passport to be renewed. This is a case of moral policing and religious prejudice. I was made to feel insulted; I broke down,” Seth wrote in a tweet to Swaraj. Last week, the police filed an adverse report saying that Seth has been living in Noida for the past one year and not the Lucknow address she mentioned in her application form. Regional Passport Officer Piyush Verma has said that as per new verification rules, applicable from 1 June onwards, no adverse report can be filed on basis of a person’s address. “We have cleared the passport of Tanvi Seth… No adverse report was filed by police on the six points mentioned in the new format.”  he was quoted by The Indian Express as saying_._