One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: A passport show cause notice and a "PP" tracking number often arrive in the same week, and they are not the same document. If the Passport Seva portal still shows the file under review at the regional passport office, treat the consignment as the Adalat letter, not the booklet. And even if the passport booklet reaches you first, you should still reply to the notice in writing, because an unanswered notice can be decided without you.
Key Facts of the Case
- Police verification was completed in the last week of February 2025 at the Regional Passport Office, Nagpur.
- On 7 August
- On 7 August 2025, two things landed close together: a show cause notice from the Regional Passport Office and a dispatch message carrying a "PP" tracking number.
- The Passport Seva portal had been showing the file as pending at the Regional Passport Office, Nagpur, from the verification in February until well past July.
- A show cause notice is, by its nature, a request for a written reply. This one gave a date by which the reply had to reach the office.
- That is the whole of the account. We have one side of it. The notice itself was not read out to me word for word, and the grounds it states are only as I understood them from the client.
What a passport show cause notice actually is
A show cause notice is not a refusal. It is the stage before one. The passport authority is telling you that it is considering an order under the Passports Act, 1967 — usually under Section 10, which covers variation, impounding and revocation — and giving you a chance to say why that order should not be passed.
That distinction matters more than anything else on this page. If the authority passes an order without hearing you, the order is open to challenge on that ground alone. If it passes the order after hearing you and after considering your reply, you are left arguing the merits, which is a harder fight.
So the notice is not bad news. Ignoring it is.
Which law applies
The Passports Act, 1967
- Section 5 — applications for passports and orders on them. This is the provision a normal, unremarkable grant flows from.
- Section 6 — refusal of a passport, on the grounds listed there.
- Section 10 — variation, impounding and revocation. Most show cause notices of this kind are anchored here.
- Section 11 — the appeal. An order under Sections 5, 6, 7 or 10 can be appealed, ordinarily within thirty days of receipt of the order, to the appellate authority specified by the Central Government.
Read Sections 10 and 11 together and the shape of the whole thing becomes clear. Section 10 gives the authority power; Section 11 gives you a remedy. You cannot use Section 11 until there is an order. Which is why the reply to the notice is not a formality — it is the record on which any later appeal will be decided.
I want to be careful about one thing. The Act does not spell out in one neat line that a hearing must precede every order under Section 10. The requirement comes from the proviso and from natural justice, and the strength of that argument varies with the ground invoked. Where the notice itself offers you a hearing, do not spend your reply arguing that you were entitled to one. Take the hearing and deal with the substance.
Where the notice is triggered by a criminal case
Sometimes the show cause notice cites a pending FIR or a case at trial. If that is your situation, the passport matter is downstream of the criminal matter, and the reply has to be written knowing what stage the criminal case is at. Under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the stage of the case — whether it is at investigation, after a charge sheet, or at trial — changes what you can usefully say. Do not write the passport reply first and think about the criminal case later.
The "PP" tracking number confusion
People see a consignment number and assume a booklet is coming. That is the wrong reading. A tracking prefix is a postal-service code. It tells you which service carried the consignment. It does not tell you what is inside.
Regional passport offices dispatch a great deal of paper, not just passports. Passport Adalats — the sittings that RPOs hold to clear pendency — mean notices, reminders and hearing letters go out in the same dispatch cycle as printed booklets.
So the reliable test is not the tracking number. It is the portal and the office:
- If the portal still shows the file pending or under review at the RPO, assume the consignment is correspondence, not the booklet.
- If the portal shows "dispatched" with a matching consignment number, the booklet is probably in it.
- If the two contradict each other, do not wait for the courier to resolve it. Write to the office.
And if the booklet does arrive while the notice is unanswered, reply anyway. A passport in your hand is not a decision on the notice. The authority can still pass an order.
How to reply to a passport show cause notice
1. Diary everything before you draft anything
Note the date on the notice, the date you received it, the date of the reply deadline, and the consignment number of whatever came in the post. Photograph the envelope. The date of receipt controls the thirty-day appeal window later, and postal delays are worth recording at the time, not reconstructing afterwards.
2. Deal with each ground in the notice, one by one
Take the grounds as they are actually written and answer each in a separate numbered paragraph. Do not write a general letter about how you are a law-abiding citizen. Officers work through files paragraph by paragraph, and a reply that mirrors the notice gets read. A reply that does not gets skimmed.
3. Attach only what proves a point
Identity proof, address proof, the police verification acknowledgement, the portal status printout, and whatever document refutes the specific ground. If the notice cites a case, attach the latest order sheet. Keep the annexures indexed and page-numbered.
4. Ask for what you are entitled to
If the notice is vague about the ground, ask for the material relied on. If a hearing is offered, confirm that you will attend. If a hearing is not offered, request one.
5. File it, and keep proof of filing
Submit at the RPO counter and get the acknowledgement stamp on your copy. If you send it by post, use a service with tracking and keep the receipt. Email alone is not filing.
6. Diarise the thirty days
If an order comes and it is adverse, Section 11 gives you a limited window. Thirty days from receipt is not a long time, particularly if the order is served by post.
What happens if you do nothing
The file does not stop. The authority takes the notice as served, notes that no reply was received, and proceeds. That is the outcome most easily avoided and most difficult to undo. An appeal against an order passed in your absence starts from a worse position than a reply filed on time, because you are then asking an appellate authority to do what the original authority was never asked to do.
Frequently Asked Questions
I received a passport show cause notice but my passport was already printed. Do I still need to reply?
Yes. Printing and dispatch are administrative steps. They do not decide the notice, and they do not stop an order under Section 10 being passed later. Reply, and mention in the reply that the booklet was printed and dispatched — it is a fair point to make.
My tracking number starts with "PP". Does that mean my passport is coming?
No. The prefix identifies the postal service, not the contents. Check the Passport Seva portal status against the consignment number. If the file still shows as pending at the regional passport office, treat it as correspondence.
Can I just ignore the notice if the police verification was already cleared?
No. Verification and the notice are separate. A notice can be issued on grounds that have nothing to do with verification, so clearing verification does not answer it.
How long do I have to reply?
The notice itself fixes the date. Read that line first, before anything else. If the date has passed, file immediately and explain the delay in the covering paragraph rather than leaving it unaddressed.
Is there a fee to file the reply?
There is no court fee for a reply submitted to the passport office. If you later go to the High Court, court fees and stamping apply, and those vary by state.
What if the order against me is passed anyway?
The statutory route is the appeal under Section 11, within thirty days of receipt. Beyond that, a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution before the High Court having jurisdiction is the usual course, though courts are slow to substitute their view for the authority's on matters of security and public interest. Grievances can also be raised through the passport portal and the CPGRAMS system, but those channels move slowly and do not stop the clock on the appeal.
What to send us
If you have received a passport show cause notice, send three things: a clear photograph or scan of the notice, a note of the date you actually received it, and two lines on what you think triggered it. If there is a pending police case, say so in those two lines — it changes the reply.
You can write to me at me@sudhirrao.com or call +91 97295 06771. The chamber is at Lawyers' Chamber, Chamber No. 86, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi - 110001, and it is the only office. You can also use the contact page if that is easier.
One practical thing before you call. Deadlines in these matters are short and they run from the date of receipt, not the date on the notice. If your reply date is within the next week, say so in the first line of your email.
On these facts, if the notice states no ground at all, or states a ground the record plainly contradicts, the reply may settle it without any further proceeding. If the notice rests on a pending criminal case, the passport file will move only as fast as that case does, and no reply can change that.
This article is general information about Indian law and is not legal advice on your own situation. Every notice turns on its own grounds and its own dates.
Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India