In Mumbai, passport applicants need not visit police station

The people of Mumbai no longer need to visit police stations to get their passports verified except in special cases.

The announcement was made Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey through a tweet on Saturday (March 12) who said that people will be called to the police station only if their documents are incomplete or the police find other discrepancies that cannot be addressed without paying a visit to the police station.

Notably, police verification is a necessary step in issuing a passport and often causes a lot of hassles to the common man. The Mumbai police chief’s announcement is expected to bring relief to a lot of citizens because several observations and written complaints have pointed at the trouble faced by people in acquiring passports due to delayed police verification.

Pandey said that henceforth a police constable would pay home to home visit to finish the formalities required to issue a passport. “Constable who comes to your house does all the work. He is competent. You may get called in only if there is a discrepancy but not as a norm,” he said.

Every passport application is verified by the police station the candidate’s jurisdiction falls under. The applicant has to visit that police station and get his/her application verified.