Madras HC slams 'male supremacism', says wife doesn’t need husband's nod for passport

In a sharp rebuke of gendered bureaucratic practices, the Madras High Court has ruled that a woman does not need her husband’s permission or signature to apply for a passport, calling such a requirement “nothing short of male supremacism.” The court stressed that such outdated norms do not belong in a society striving for women's emancipation, according to Live Law.

The judgment came while Justice Anand Venkatesh was hearing a petition filed by a woman whose passport application had been stalled by the Regional Passport Office. Officials allegedly refused to process her application unless she submitted Form J with her husband’s signature, despite informing them that she was in the middle of a matrimonial dispute and divorce proceedings.

“In the considered view of this Court, the application submitted by the petitioner seeking for passport has to be processed independently,” the court stated, firmly noting that marriage does not strip a woman of her individuality or legal agency. “This insistence made by the 2nd respondent shows the mindset of the society in treating women who are married as if they are chattel belonging to the husband.”

The petitioner got married in 2023 and had a daughter in 2024. After marital discord led to divorce proceedings in a sub-court in Alandur, she applied for a passport in April 2025. Her application was stalled when authorities insisted she get her estranged husband’s signature.

Justice Venkatesh found the passport office’s demand “quite shocking,” noting that such insistence was both regressive and unjust. “The practice of insisting for permission from the husband to apply for passport does not augur well for a society which is moving towards woman emancipation.”

The court concluded that forcing the wife to get her husband's authorisation, especially when the relationship was “in doldrums,” amounted to asking her to fulfil an impossibility. It ordered the passport office to process her application and issue the passport within four weeks, provided other requirements were met.