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Passport Verification Report to be disclosed under RTI
Quick Reply: An adverse police verification report (PVR) can stall or sink a passport — and the applicant often never sees it. The Central Information Commission has directed disclosure of the PVR to the applicant it concerns: the report is information about you, held by a public authority, and seeing it is the precondition to answering it. The order below is the anchor; the ask-format follows.
What happened
A passport office had issued a show-cause notice to the complainant after an adverse report from the Superintendent of Police, Coimbatore came in during police verification. The complainant filed an RTI application seeking a certified copy of the complete police verification report. The Commission directed disclosure of the police verification report relating to the applicant — order CIC/VS/C/2014/900344 & CIC/VS/C/2014/900297, dated 21 February 2017 (hosted: full order).
Why it matters
- The PVR is the usual invisible culprit behind passport delays, show-cause notices and refusals — you cannot rebut what you cannot read.
- The applicant's own verification report is their information (§2(f)); third-party/confidentiality objections give way when the subject of the report is the requester.
- With the report in hand, the response writes itself: correct the factual error with the verifying officer, or answer the show-cause with the record.
How to ask for your PVR
1. **Address:** the CPIO of the **Regional Passport Office** that processed your file (central authority — file at [[https://rtionline.gov.in|rtionline.gov.in]], ₹10). 2. **Queries:** "certified copies of (1) the complete police verification report for my application file no. ___; (2) the report's covering note/summary placed on my file; (3) the correspondence from the verifying police authority." 3. **Refusal patterns:** "third party" (the report is about **you**); §8(1)(g) (no investigation to protect once verification is complete — see [[:explanations:investigation-under-rti|the completion test]]); "confidential" (cite the CIC order above). 4. If stalled: first appeal; the demand for the **notice copy** under §11 usually ends the "third party" defence. 5. Grievance running parallel? [[:complaints/passport-complaint|Passport complaint routes]].
FAQs
Will asking for my PVR anger the office handling my passport?
It is a statutory right exercised about your own file; the order above is exactly this ask, allowed.
Verification is still ongoing — does 8(1)(h) block it?
Possibly, while live — see the completion test. After verification completes and the decision is made, the impediment rationale falls away.
The adverse PVR is factually wrong — what then?
Answer the show-cause with documents; simultaneously seek correction with the verifying police unit; the RTI-obtained report is your exhibit in both.
Can an agent file this for me?
The application must be by a citizen in their own name (§3) — you sign; anyone may post it.
Related
Sources
- CIC, CIC/VS/C/2014/900344 & CIC/VS/C/2014/900297 dated 21 February 2017 (Vasantha Dorai Raj) — order hosted above.
- Right to Information Act, 2005, §§2(f), 6, 8, 11.
Last reviewed on: 27 August 2026. The two unrelated filler citations (a 2020 SC Constitution Bench matter and an unrelated accountability case) removed; ask-format, refusal patterns and FAQ added around the real hosted order.