In short. To remove a look out circular (LOC), you either get the agency that opened it to withdraw it, get the court hearing your case to permit travel or direct its withdrawal, or file a writ petition in the Delhi High Court to quash or suspend it. This guide is for anyone stopped at an airport or told an LOC is open against them. A withdrawal request can work in a few weeks; a High Court petition is usually heard within days of filing and decided in one to six months. Start by finding out which agency opened it and why.
Is this your situation?
- You were stopped or offloaded by immigration at IGI Airport and told there is a look out circular against you.
- An FIR, ED case, CBI case or bank dispute is pending and you need to travel abroad for work, study or family.
- You are an NRI who came to India and now cannot fly back to your job or family.
- Your case has been closed, quashed or settled, but you suspect the LOC is still active.
- The police or an agency told you an LOC has been opened, but nobody has given you any order or reasons.
- You joined the investigation and appeared every time you were called, yet the LOC was not withdrawn.
- You are a director or guarantor of a company and a bank has started recovery proceedings.
Key points
- An LOC is an alert, not a court order. It is opened by an agency through the Bureau of Immigration and you usually learn about it only at the airport.
- First identify the originating agency. Every step to remove a look out circular depends on knowing who opened it, in which case and on what ground.
- Ask for withdrawal before you litigate. If you have joined the investigation, been granted bail or the case is over, a written request to the agency often works faster than a petition.
- The Delhi High Court can quash or suspend an LOC under Article 226, usually with conditions such as an itinerary, an undertaking to return and a security deposit.
- Closure of the case does not delete the LOC automatically. Get written confirmation that the deletion request reached the Bureau of Immigration before you book a ticket.
What is a look out circular?
A look out circular is a request from a government agency to the immigration authorities to watch for a particular person at airports, seaports and land border posts. The Bureau of Immigration enters the person's details in its system, and when that passport is scanned at an immigration counter the system flags it. What happens next depends on the action the agency asked for: inform the agency of the person's arrival or departure, prevent the person from leaving India, or detain the person and hand him over to the police.
The rules for LOCs are not in any Act of Parliament. They come from Ministry of Home Affairs office memoranda, the current consolidated one dated 22 February 2021. Because the power is administrative, an LOC can be challenged by a writ petition under Article 226 as arbitrary or as an unfair restriction on the right to travel abroad.
An LOC is different from a passport being impounded or refused. Impounding is done by the passport authority under Section 10(3) of the Passports Act 1967 and is a formal order you can appeal. An LOC leaves your passport untouched; you hold a valid passport and still cannot board. If both have happened, each needs its own remedy, and our page on passport refusal and impounding explains the passport side.
Who can open an LOC, and on what grounds?
The 2021 memorandum lists the officers who can ask for an LOC. Broadly, they are senior officers of the Central Government and state governments, district magistrates, police officers of the rank of Superintendent of Police and above, designated officers of central agencies such as the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, and the designated officer for Interpol matters. Courts can also direct that an LOC be opened. A clause added in 2018 allowed chiefs of public sector banks to make requests, and that clause has been litigated heavily since.
The normal ground is that the person is accused of a cognizable offence and is deliberately evading arrest, or is not appearing before the trial court despite non-bailable warrants. In exceptional cases the memorandum allows an LOC even without a cognizable offence, if departure would harm India's security, foreign relations, economic interests or the larger public interest. That last ground is the one most often misused, and most successful challenges are made against it.
The agency fills in a proforma with the person's details, the case, the reasons and the action sought. You get no notice and no copy. Once a petition is filed, the court usually asks the agency to place its reasons on record, and that is often the first time the person sees why he was stopped.
How people find out: the moment at the airport
Most people learn about an LOC at the immigration counter at IGI Airport, Terminal 3, with a boarding pass in hand. The officer scans the passport, the screen flags it, and the passenger is taken aside. If the LOC only asks immigration to inform the agency, you may be allowed to fly after a delay while they make a call. If it asks them to prevent departure, you are offloaded and your baggage is pulled off the flight. If it asks for detention, the local police or the originating agency is called and you may be handed over to them.
Stay calm and collect information. Ask the officer politely which agency's alert has been flagged; sometimes they will name it or give a reference number. Note the time and the officers' details, and keep your boarding pass and the airline's offloading record, which prove the date you were stopped if you later ask for urgent listing.
Do not argue your case with the immigration officer; he cannot delete an LOC. If you are handed over to the police on a detention request, ask for the grounds of arrest (Section 47 BNSS, old Section 50 CrPC) and call your lawyer. If there is a pending bail or anticipatory bail order in your favour, keep a copy on your phone; our page on anticipatory bail in the Delhi High Court explains why that order matters at this stage.
Can you check look out circular status before going to the airport?
There is no public portal where you can type in your passport number and see whether an LOC is open. The Bureau of Immigration does not confirm LOCs to individuals, and RTI requests on the point are usually refused. So the practical answer is that you find out indirectly, and you should do so before you buy a non-refundable ticket.
The most reliable route is a written query to the investigating officer or the agency handling your case, asking whether an LOC has been opened and, if so, requesting its withdrawal. Agencies do not always reply, but an unanswered letter is still useful later as proof that you tried. The second route is through the court: if your case is pending before a trial court or the High Court, your lawyer can ask the prosecutor to obtain instructions on whether an LOC exists, or ask the court to direct the agency to disclose it. Status reports filed by the police in bail and quashing matters sometimes mention the LOC in passing.
Do not test the position by turning up at the airport: a failed attempt to leave is later used by agencies as evidence that the person was trying to flee.
How long does an LOC stay in force?
Under the earlier guidelines an LOC was valid for one year unless renewed. Under the 2021 memorandum it does not lapse on a fixed date: it stays in force until the originating agency asks the Bureau of Immigration to delete it. The agency is expected to review its LOCs from time to time, and courts have repeatedly reminded agencies that an LOC cannot be kept alive indefinitely once its purpose is over, but in practice many LOCs simply sit in the system for years.
This is the single most important thing to understand about look out circular validity. An LOC is linked to a case but is not erased when the case ends. If the FIR is quashed, the accused is acquitted, the bank dispute is settled or the ED closes its inquiry, the agency still has to send a deletion request. Officers move on, files go to the record room, and the LOC stays. People who were discharged years ago are still offloaded because nobody wrote that one letter.
So when the Delhi High Court quashes an FIR or disposes of a case in which an LOC was opened, ask for a specific direction that the LOC be withdrawn and the withdrawal communicated to the Bureau of Immigration within a fixed time.
Three ways to remove a look out circular
The first route is a withdrawal request to the agency that opened it. This fits cases where the original ground has gone: you have joined the investigation, appeared on every summons, been granted bail or anticipatory bail, the chargesheet has been filed and the trial is going on with you appearing, or the case has ended. The letter goes to the officer who opened the LOC, with a copy to his superior, attaching the documents that show the ground no longer exists. Some agencies act on such a letter within weeks. Others ignore it, but it becomes the base for the next step.
The second route is through the court where your case is pending. If a chargesheet has been filed and the trial court is seized of the case, that court can permit you to travel abroad for a particular trip on conditions, and the order is sent to the agency and immigration. Courts have also directed agencies to withdraw LOCs where the accused has been regularly attending trial. This route suits people who need one trip, not a permanent end to the LOC, and our guide on how to travel abroad when a criminal case is pending walks through it.
The third route is a writ petition in the Delhi High Court under Article 226 asking for the LOC to be quashed, or at least suspended for a specific trip. This is the route where there is no FIR at all, where the LOC was opened on the vague ground of economic interest, where the agency will not respond, or where the trial court has refused permission and a broader challenge is needed. The court can quash the LOC outright, suspend it for a period, or allow travel on conditions while the petition is pending. Our service page on getting an LOC quashed or suspended sets out how we handle these petitions.
Where the LOC flows from a non-bailable warrant or a proclamation, the LOC is a symptom: the order behind it has to be cancelled first, and our guide on what happens when you are declared a proclaimed offender covers that chain.
The rules and judgments that decide an LOC challenge
MHA Office Memorandum, 22 February 2021
The consolidated guidelines on who may open an LOC, on what grounds, the proforma to be filled and the actions that can be requested. They also say the originating agency is responsible for the LOC and for its deletion. Courts read these guidelines strictly against the agency because they are the only source of the power.
Article 21 and Article 226, Constitution of India
The right to travel abroad is part of personal liberty (Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, 1978) and can be restricted only by a fair procedure. Article 226 lets the High Court issue directions to any authority within its territory, or where the cause of action arose wholly or partly within it (Article 226(2)).
Sumer Singh Salkan v. Asstt. Director (Delhi High Court, 2010)
An early reference answered by the Delhi High Court which set out the basic principles: an LOC is a coercive measure meant for persons who deliberately evade arrest or do not appear in court despite coercive steps, the person can approach the agency or the court for its withdrawal, and the court can look at the reasons. Later judgments of the Delhi High Court and other High Courts build on it.
Section 528 BNSS (old Section 482 CrPC) and Section 35 BNSS (old Section 41A CrPC)
Where the LOC flows from an FIR, the quashing of that FIR under the High Court's inherent powers takes away its base. Compliance with a Section 35 notice to join investigation is strong evidence that you are not evading the process, which is the usual ground for the LOC.
What the Delhi High Court looks at when you challenge an LOC
The court's first question is the basis. Is there an FIR or a complaint in a cognizable offence? If not, is the exceptional ground of economic interest or public interest supported by anything more than a sentence in the proforma? An LOC opened in a purely civil or commercial dispute, with no criminal case at all, is on weak ground, and the court will ask the agency to show what harm to the country the person's travel would cause.
The second question is conduct. Did you join the investigation when called? Did you respond to notices under Section 35 BNSS or summons from the agency? Have you appeared before the trial court on every date? Have you travelled before during the pendency of the case and come back? A person with a clean record of appearing is in a very different position from one who switched off his phone for six months. When Advocate B.K. Singh prepares an LOC petition, he builds a simple date-wise table of every notice received and every appearance made, with the acknowledgment of each, because that one page usually answers the agency's main argument before it is made.
The third question is roots and risk. The court looks at whether you have a home, family, business or property in India, the purpose and length of the trip, whether you have returned from earlier trips, and the size of the amount involved in the case. An NRI whose entire life is abroad will be asked for firmer guarantees than a Delhi resident going for a two-week conference.
Even where the court will not quash the LOC, it often grants LOC suspension for travel on a specific trip, with conditions such as a fixed deposit, an undertaking to return, the itinerary and address abroad, and reporting to the investigating officer on return. Those conditions are what the court needs to be confident that you will come back.
Which court: the trial court, the Delhi High Court or another High Court?
If a chargesheet has been filed and your trial is pending before a Delhi court, the first stop for a single trip is usually that trial court, because it controls your appearance. The High Court will often ask whether you approached the trial court first. For a challenge to the LOC itself, especially where there is no chargesheet, no FIR, or the ground is the agency's own vague concern, a writ petition in the High Court is the correct remedy.
The Delhi High Court has jurisdiction where the agency that opened the LOC is located in Delhi, where the FIR or case is in Delhi, or where part of the cause of action arose here under Article 226(2). Central agencies such as the CBI, ED and SFIO have their headquarters in Delhi, and the Bureau of Immigration is also headquartered here, so petitions against LOCs opened by central agencies are often filed in Delhi.
Where the LOC was opened by the Uttar Pradesh or Haryana police for an FIR in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram or Faridabad, the natural forum is usually the Allahabad High Court or the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Being offloaded at IGI Airport gives some connection to Delhi, but courts apply forum conveniens (Kusum Ingots v. Union of India, 2004) and may tell you to go to the High Court where the case is. Filing in the wrong court can cost you weeks you do not have, so decide the forum on the facts, not on convenience.
Step by step: getting an LOC removed or suspended through the Delhi High Court
This is how to remove an LOC through the court when a withdrawal request has failed.
Identify the agency and the case
Pin down which agency opened the LOC and in which FIR, ECIR or inquiry. Use the airport slip, any letter from the agency, the FIR and your own correspondence. If you genuinely do not know, the petition can ask the Union of India and the Bureau of Immigration to disclose it.
Write to the originating agency
Send a short, firm letter asking for withdrawal, attaching proof of your cooperation, bail orders and the status of the case. Send it by email and speed post and keep the tracking record. Give a reasonable deadline; where travel is urgent, a few days is enough before you file.
Prepare the writ petition
The petition sets out the facts in date order, the LOC (or the fact of being stopped), your cooperation, the purpose of travel and the legal grounds. Respondents usually include the Union of India through the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Bureau of Immigration and the originating agency. An application for urgent listing and interim relief is filed with it.
File and seek listing
The petition is e-filed on the Delhi High Court's portal and checked for defects. Fresh matters are generally listed within a few days; if you have a confirmed date of travel or a job deadline, an urgent mention can bring it up sooner. The court's own website is the place for official case status; this site is a private law firm's site, not the court's.
First hearing
The court usually issues notice and asks the agency's counsel for instructions or a status report with the reasons for the LOC. Where travel is urgent and your record is clean, interim permission to travel on conditions is sometimes granted at this stage. Otherwise the matter is adjourned by a few weeks.
Agency's reply and arguments
The agency files a status report or counter affidavit. You reply to anything new. The court hears both sides, often in one or two short hearings, and either quashes the LOC, suspends it for a period or trip, or dismisses the petition with liberty to approach the trial court.
Comply with conditions and confirm deletion
Deposit the security, file the undertaking and send the order to the agency and the Bureau of Immigration. Before you fly, confirm through the agency or the prosecutor that the order has been communicated, and carry a certified or downloaded copy with you to the airport.
How long it takes and what it costs
| Stage | Typical time | Court fee and expenses |
|---|---|---|
| Written withdrawal request to the agency | Reply in 2 to 8 weeks if the agency responds at all | No court fee; speed post and copying costs |
| Application for travel permission before the trial court | Decided in 1 to 4 weeks, depending on the next date and the prosecution's reply | Nominal court fee; check the current rate |
| Filing the writ petition in Delhi High Court | Drafting 2 to 7 days; listing usually within a few days of clearing defects | Court fee for a writ petition is modest; check the current fee schedule |
| First hearing and interim travel permission | Same day as first listing in urgent cases; otherwise 2 to 6 weeks | Cost of preparing the paper book and affidavits |
| Final decision on quashing or suspension | Commonly 1 to 6 months; longer if the agency contests on serious grounds | Security deposit (FDR or bank guarantee) if the court orders one; refundable on return |
| Deletion reaching the Bureau of Immigration | A few days to several weeks after the order | None; follow up in writing |
Documents to collect before you file
About the LOC and the case
- Any slip, letter or note handed to you at the airport, and your boarding pass
- Airline's offloading or cancellation record
- Copy of the FIR, ECIR, complaint or bank notice
- All notices under Section 35 BNSS or agency summons, with proof of your replies
- Bail, anticipatory bail or protection orders
- Latest order sheets of the trial court, and the chargesheet if filed
About you and the trip
- Passport (all pages) and visa or residence permit
- Purpose of travel: employment letter, admission letter, medical papers, invitation, wedding card
- Proposed itinerary and return ticket or booking
- Address and contact details abroad
- Proof of roots in India: property papers, family details, business registration, tax returns
- Record of earlier trips abroad and returns during the case
For the petition
- Copies of your withdrawal letters to the agency and tracking proof
- Vakalatnama and affidavit (an NRI can sign abroad, attested at the Indian mission or notarised and apostilled)
- Bank details for any security deposit the court may require
Mistakes that keep an LOC alive
The most common mistake is avoiding the investigating officer. People who fear arrest stop answering calls and do not reply to notices, and that silence is exactly what the agency writes in its justification for the LOC. If arrest is the worry, the answer is anticipatory bail or protection, not disappearing. Once protection is in hand, join the investigation and keep proof that you did.
The second mistake is assuming the LOC ended with the case. People who get an FIR quashed after a settlement celebrate, book a holiday and are offloaded. Ask for the deletion direction in the quashing order, send it to the agency and get confirmation. The same applies when a bank settlement is completed: the bank's no-dues letter is not a deletion request.
The third mistake is filing in a hurry with incomplete papers. A petition that does not disclose an earlier application in the trial court, or a pending warrant, invites a dismissal and an adverse remark that follows you. Advocate B.K. Singh's practice is to ask the client for every order passed in the case, including the ones the client thinks are irrelevant, because the agency's counsel will produce them anyway and it is far better for the court to hear about them from you.
The fourth mistake is booking a non-refundable ticket before the order has reached immigration. Leave a few working days.
If the LOC was opened at a bank's request
Directors, promoters and guarantors of companies whose loans have turned bad have been a large group of LOC subjects since public sector bank chiefs were allowed to request LOCs on the economic interest ground. In April 2024 the Bombay High Court in Viraj Chetan Shah v. Union of India struck down the clause letting bank chiefs request LOCs, and the Delhi High Court, in rulings of 2024 and 2025, has quashed LOCs sought by banks merely to recover dues. An appeal is pending in the Supreme Court, so the law is still evolving; check the current position.
Courts generally ask whether there is any criminal case at all, whether the person was merely a guarantor or a non-executive director, whether he has cooperated in recovery proceedings before the DRT, and whether the bank has a real basis to fear he will not return. A bank's wish to use the LOC as pressure for repayment is not, by itself, a ground. Our guide on whether an LOC can be issued in a bank loan dispute covers this in detail, and where the bank has also declared the account a fraud or the borrower a wilful defaulter, see our page on challenging fraud and wilful defaulter tags.
NRIs, students and business travellers
NRIs face the hardest version of this problem: they come to India for a wedding or a family emergency, are named in an FIR or already have one, and are stopped on the way back. Their job, visa or residence status abroad may be at risk within weeks. For them, speed matters more than a perfect challenge. The usual course is to seek interim permission to travel on conditions first, and argue the full quashing later, with the NRI joining hearings and the investigation by video where the court permits. If the NRI is still abroad and fears arrest on arrival, our guide on anticipatory bail for NRIs from abroad explains how to secure protection before booking the flight.
Students should approach the court as soon as the admission letter arrives, not a week before term, because the agency's reply takes time.
Business travellers should keep a record of every trip abroad and return during the case; a history of coming back on time is persuasive evidence. Where there is a pending trial and only a short trip is needed, a travel permission application may be quicker than a writ; our page on permission to travel abroad during a criminal case covers that route.
A made-up example: the exporter stopped at Terminal 3
Here's a made-up example. Rakesh, a garment exporter from Okhla, is named in a cheating FIR filed by a former buyer over a disputed consignment. He gets anticipatory bail from the Sessions Court, joins the investigation twice, and the police file a chargesheet. A year later, flying to Dhaka for a trade fair, he is stopped at IGI Airport and told an LOC is open at the request of the local police.
His lawyer writes to the DCP the next morning, attaching the anticipatory bail order, the IO's acknowledgments of both appearances and the chargesheet, and asking for withdrawal. No reply comes in ten days. Because the trade fair is still three weeks away, the lawyer files an application before the trial court for permission to travel, which is allowed on a fixed deposit and an undertaking. At the same time he files a writ petition in the Delhi High Court pointing out that the LOC was opened when Rakesh was already on bail and cooperating. At the first hearing the State's counsel takes instructions, and on the next date the court records the statement that the LOC will be withdrawn and directs that the withdrawal be communicated to the Bureau of Immigration within a week.
Real cases turn on their own documents and facts.
What to do this week
Put every document connected with the case in date order. Write to the originating agency asking whether an LOC is open and requesting its withdrawal, attaching proof of your cooperation. If you have not joined the investigation, take legal advice on protection first and then join it.
If you have a fixed travel date, work backwards from it: allow a week for drafting and filing, a few days for listing, at least one adjournment for the agency's reply and a few working days for the order to reach immigration. If the case behind the LOC can itself be ended, by quashing on merits or on settlement, pursue that in parallel; our page on LOC quashing in the Delhi High Court explains how the two are combined in one petition where the facts allow.
For advice on your own papers, or to check the current law on LOCs before you book a ticket, you can contact Advocate B.K. Singh.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if a look out circular has been issued against me?
There is no public website to check. You usually learn of it at the airport, or by asking the investigating officer or agency in writing. Where a case is pending in court, your lawyer can ask the prosecutor to take instructions on whether an LOC exists.
Does an LOC expire after one year?
That was the rule under the older guidelines. Under the 2021 Home Ministry memorandum an LOC stays in force until the agency that opened it asks for deletion. So you should not assume it has lapsed just because time has passed.
Can an LOC be issued without an FIR?
The guidelines allow it in exceptional cases where travel would harm the country's security, foreign relations, economic interests or the larger public interest. Courts look closely at such LOCs and have quashed many where the reasons were vague. If there is no criminal case at all, that is a strong point in a challenge.
Will I be arrested at the airport if there is an LOC?
Only if the LOC asks for detention and there is a basis for arrest. Many LOCs only ask immigration to stop departure or inform the agency. Carry copies of any bail or protection order in your favour when you travel.
Can the trial court allow me to travel even if there is an LOC?
Yes. The court where your case is pending can permit travel for a specific trip on conditions, and the order is communicated to the agency and immigration. It does not always end the LOC, so for a permanent solution you may still need a withdrawal or a High Court order.
Can an NRI file a petition against an LOC from abroad?
Yes, if the NRI is already abroad, the petition can be filed through a lawyer in India on an affidavit signed before the Indian mission or attested and apostilled. Hearings are usually attended by counsel, and video appearance is possible where the court allows it.
My FIR was quashed. Is my LOC removed automatically?
Not automatically. The agency that opened the LOC has to send a deletion request to the Bureau of Immigration. Ask for a specific direction in the quashing order and follow up in writing until you have confirmation.
What conditions does the High Court usually impose for travel?
Common conditions are a fixed deposit or bank guarantee, an undertaking to return on a fixed date, a copy of the itinerary and address abroad, keeping a phone number active, and reporting to the investigating officer on return. The amount and terms depend on the case and the person's roots in India.
Advocate B.K. Singh
Founder of B.K. Singh & Associates. MCA, LL.B., LL.M. More than twenty years in practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, Delhi district courts and tribunals. This guide was written and reviewed by his team.
This guide explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice on your own papers, contact the team.
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