Justice GR Swaminathan noted that the petitioner, K Mohamed Rilvan, could not secure any overseas jobs for the past nine years due to the passport surrender notice. “He has suffered enough and seems to have learnt his lessons,” the judge said. 

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Madurai passport officer to return the passport of a man who was told to surrender it after a case was registered against him in 2014 for posing with his friends for a photograph wearing T-shirts that read, “We are all ISIS”.

Justice GR Swaminathan noted that the petitioner, K Mohamed Rilvan, could not secure any overseas jobs for the past nine years due to the passport surrender notice. “He has suffered enough and seems to have learnt his lessons,” the judge said.

Rilvan has to face the prosecution and establish his innocence before the trial court, but taking into account his desire to go abroad, Passport Officer, Madurai, has been directed to return his passport, the judge said. The court also directed the Thiruvadanai magistrate to conclude the proceedings against him within six months.

The order was passed on a petition filed by Rilvan in 2015 challenging the notice issued to him by the passport officer on March 24, 2015, directing him to surrender his passport. According to the order, on July 24, 2014, Rilvan and his friends gathered near Thondi Beach and took a group photo. They were all wearing T-shirts that read, “We are all ISIS”.