New Delhi: After a prolonged legal battle, about four years after her previous passport expired and three years after her application, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti has been issued a passport with 10-years’ validity.In March this year, the Delhi high court had told the authorities to decide on whether it was going to accept Mehbooba’s application within three months.“Considering that the matter is remanded back to the passport officer and the initial rejection was two years ago, let the passport officer concerned take a decision expeditiously and in any case within three months,” Justice Prathiba M. Singh had said.Two other members of Mehbooba’s family – her mother Gulshan Nazir and daughter Iltija Mufti – have also been had trouble with their passport applications. Nazir was finally granted a passport after the court intervened in February this year. “The Passport Officer has not to act as the mouthpiece of the CID. When an authority is vested with the power, the same is to be exercised judiciously and not arbitrarily as has been done in the instant case,” Justice M.A. Chowdhary had said then.“Earlier, the authorities had said in the honourable court that issuing passports to the Mufti family is a threat to national security. My mother has nothing to do with politics. She is in her 80s and her passport was also denied. Only after the court’s intervention was her passport released. How could my mother be a threat to national security,” Mehbooba had told The Wire then.Iltija, meanwhile, was only issued a “conditional” passport – and one valid for only two years. She challenged this decision in court, and the next hearing of that is scheduled for two days from now. As The Wire has reported, in its response to a petition filed by Iltija in the J&K high court, the Regional Passport Officer in Srinagar said that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of J&K Police “does not favour issuance of passport” to the Mehbooba’s daughter.“Am I a terrorist? Am I an anti-national? If I speak out against the Union government, does it mean that I am attacking the country? Expressing myself is my fundamental right as an Indian citizen. I have not broken any law, yet I am being targeted. I am not entitled to a passport because Mehbooba Mufti sahiba is my mother. I am entitled to a passport because I am a law-abiding Indian citizen,” Iltija had responded to this.