(Court OF APPEAL)*

GEORGE  KASSABLAN v. JANNETEB KASSABIAN

AC-REV-541-1965

 Principles

·  Possession-physical possession-passport-Every citizen is entitled to have physical possession of his passport

 Every citizen is entiteled , in his personal capacity, to have physical possession of his passport , unless due to some incapacity he is unable to possess it

Judgment

Advocate: Henry Riad…………………….for applicant

Osman El Tayeb J. March 24.1965:-The parties are Sudanese by naturalisation, being of Armenian origin, and they are husband and wife. Some differences have arisen between them, and as a result the wife intended to travel outside the Sudan. She found that her passport was inn the possession of her husband. She asked him to hand it over to her, but he refused and continued detaining and not allowing her to have it . she instituted a suit in District Court , Khartoum, alleging that her husband ,  applicant, has been wrongfully detaining her passport and prayed for an order to him to let her have it.

The answer was that he in his capacity as a husband has the right not to allow respondent to leave the Sudan , and for this reason he is detaining her passport. Besides this there were superfluous arguments that took divergent in-roads about the nature of a passport whether it is property or not . all these together with the alleged right of a husband to restrict the movements of his wife are off point and should not have been discussed.

I should not now tae interest in the alleged right of the husband, nor to the nature of passport whether it is property or not. I shall jump across that: that a passport is an official document issued by the state, as an Act of sovereignty, to a citizen, who according to its law is so entitled thereto, in his personal capacity. The citizen is the holder who must have physical possession of his passport, unless due to some incapacity he is unable to possess it.

In the circumstances, and in accordance with public policy and Justice, respondent must have physical possession of her passport, and applicant must be restrained from detaining it

By way of comment, it may be said that if this passport were lost or destroyed by applicant or otherwise, would he be able to prevent he to replace it from the authorities? I do not think that he would be able to do so.

For these reasons, this application is summarily dismissed.

* Court: Babiker Awadalla C.J. and Osman El Tayeb J.