When the petition filed by Udayakumar came up for hearing before Justice K Venkataraman, Centre's counsel said the PMANE leader's passport had already been impounded as he had not given explanation to questions about the cases nor had he surrendered the passport as directed.
The judge then ordered issue of notice to the passport officer and posted the case to April 25.
Udayakumar in his petition contended that the officer had passed the order on April 2 without any enquiry or notice.
He also alleged that the Union government was actively involved in a systematic hate campaign against him ever since people in Kudankulam area started their agitation against the nuclear project.
He pointed out that as per the act every passport holder should be given an opportunity to be heard within a period of eight weeks, after which central government alone could take action on whether to impound the passport or not. The passport officer had no powers to impound it, he said.
Udayakumar had also sent a legal notice to the passport officer. PTI SSN APR
