Invoking the principle of a “fresh start” and the “right to be forgotten”, the Allahabad High Court has directed the regional passport office to consider a man’s application for a passport, without regard to a prior conviction recorded against him as a minor by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB). Hearing a plea of a man, who now attained the majority and was convicted as a minor and later completed the probation period, a bench of Justices Indrajeet Shukla and Ajit Kumar said that since no criminal proceedings are pending against the petitioner, recording of pendency of criminal case in the order “complete non-serious attitude” of the authorities and is a “monument of non-application of mind”. “The respondents are further bound to give full effect to the principle of ‘fresh start’ embodied in the juvenile statute, so that past juvenile delinquency does not impair the future prospects and rehabilitation/reintegration of the petitioner,” the court said on May 7.…