The passport of a woman who was to attend her daughter-in-law’s post-funeral rituals in the UK, was renewed within 24 hours in Ahmedabad on humanitarian grounds.
The Ahmedabad Regional Passport Office treated it as an exceptional case and issued the new passport to Dhiruben Pandya, a resident of the city’s Paldi area, the very next morning of her application for the same.
Passport officials said Pandya’s daughter-in-law Palak (37) passed away in London from a cardiac arrest. The applicant realised that her trip to the UK would not be possible as her passport had expired.
Her son Bhargav Pandya said, “My wife Palak passed away in the UK. We flew her body to Ahmedabad for the funeral. It was decided to hold the other rituals in the UK since most of our family lives there. I had planned to take my parents along but realised that my mother’s passport had expired.”
He added that the family contacted the passport office on Thursday evening. After examining the circumstances, the office renewed her passport in less than 24 hours.
She was handed over the renewed passport on Friday.
An official said that the wait time was around 21 days for a normal passport and for the first available date if applied under tatkal was Monday.
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