Passports of runaway NRI husbands cancelled

NEW DELHI: A senior official of the Ministry of Women and Child Development said today that the passports of eight non-resident Indians who abandoned their wives and fled have been cancelled.

The inter-ministerial agency of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs has received 70 complaints in the last two months involving NRI offenders, who flee after abandoning their wives.

Acting on the complaints, passports of eight NRI husbands have been cancelled and lookout notices issued against them,” the official said. The ministry has also started an online portal for registration of such marriages, but it is yet to become operational.

According to agencies reports, Maneka Gandhi, Women and Child Development Minister had yesterday urged states to get their marriage registrars inform the ministry about registration of such marriages immediately, so as to make the portal operational at the earliest.

The ministry had earlier said all NRI marriages would soon need to be registered within seven days, and if the same was not done within the stipulated time, the passports and visas would not be issued to the people involved.

With agencies inputs