The passport of the daughter-in-law of the former prime minister was impounded on the ground that her presence was likely to be required in connection with the proceedings of ca commission of inquiry. The Court held that an order impounding a passport must be made quasi-judicially. The audi alteram partem rule (no judgment without a fair hearing) must be regarded as incorporated in the passport law by necessary implication, since any procedure which dealt with the modalities of regulating, restricting, or even rejecting a fundamental right has to be fair, not "arbitrary, freakish or bizarre".

“Things have changed, global awareness has dawned. The European Convention on Human Rights and bilateral understandings have made headway to widen freedom of travel abroad as integral to liberty of the person. And the universal Declaration of Human Rights has proclaimed in Article 13, that every one has the right to leave any country including his own, and to return to his country. This human planet is our single home, though geographically variegated, culturally diverse, politically pluralist in science and technology competitive and co-operative in arts and life-styles a lovely mosaic and, above all, suffused with a cosmic unconsciousness of unity and inter- dependence.”

(p459, The Judicial Application of Human Rights Law, by Jayawickrama, Nihal)

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