POLITICAL CLEARANCE

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The Chief Minister of Delhi has asked why the Union Government has hindered the clearance of his Singapore trip.
- The Delhi Chief Minister has been invited to attend a World City summit, which is scheduled between July 31st-August 3 in Singapore.
The Delhi CM has criticized the Union Government by highlighting that; this doesn't happen for the first time, in 2019 also the Union government had not approved to attend C 40 Climate Summit in Denmark, which was later addressed through video conferencing.

Details

Chief Ministers have to inform the Union Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of External Affairs about the proposed foreign visit of Chief Ministers and Ministers of State Governments/Union Territories.
- Political clearance and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) clearance are mandatory for any foreign visit.
Chief Ministers and Ministers of State governments need to send a copy of the application to the Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA).

Political Clearance

The authority to issue Political clearance comes under the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Public servants and any government servants must need clearance for a foreign trip.
The External Ministry gets requests for political clearance.
The final decision on the clearance is taken based on several factors such as;
- The nature of the event.
- The level of participation from other countries.
- The kind of invitation.
- India’s relations with the host country.
Since 2016, applications for political clearance can be made on the portal epolclearance.gov.in.
The clearance is issued after inter-Ministerial coordination through a dedicated ‘Coordination Division’.
Without this Political clearance, no public servant or Government servant can go abroad.

Other types of clearances

Officers working under different government departments need several additional clearances from their respective departments.
Chief Ministers, ministers of state governments and other state officials need clearance from the Department of Economic Affairs.
Union Ministers, after getting political clearance from the MEA, additional clearance is needed from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
The Lok Sabha MPs need clearance from the Speaker.
The Rajya Sabha members need clearance from the Chairperson (Vice President of India).
For MPs, it is not mandatory to inform the Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha secretariat if the trip is private.
Officers working under different ministries up to the Joint Secretary level also need clearance by the minister concerned, after political clearance by MEA.
- For those above the rank of Joint Secretary Level, their proposal needs to be approved by a screening committee of secretaries.
Rules differ according to;
- The period of the visit.
- The country to be visited.
- The number of members in a delegation.
If the foreign trip includes the visit of organizations other than the UN, then the FCRA clearance is mandatory from the Union Home Ministry.
For government employees, all foreign trips, official or personal, need approval.

Do judges also need clearance for a foreign visit?

For official foreign travel, the application of a Supreme Court or High Court judge is sent to the Department of Justice (DoJ) after getting approval from the Chief Justice of India.
The Department of Justice, after taking political clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs and in some cases from the Home Ministry (when FCRA is involved), grant permission.
Before February 2010, Political clearance from the MEA was needed even for personal trips, since then it is not mandatory in case of private visits.
- The decision was challenged in the Delhi High Court but was rejected by the court.
- Therefore Judges do not need clearance for personal foreign trips.