Experience of penalty for non cancellation of Indian passpor

[ey143]

Does anyone have any experience of trying to cancel their India passport after attaining British citizenship and continuing to travel on the Indian passport not realising that they were breaking the Indian law?

My wife was an Indian student when we married and she attained British citizenship in 2005. Since that time she has visited India at least once per year on her Indian passport. We were not aware that we had to cancel the Indian passport until we recently applied for our OCI and her application was rejected as they told us to obtain a cancellation certificate first then for her to apply for her OCI.

I am concerned now that I have read the penalties and was wondering if anyone else has experienced the same. Im not sure how to handle this now and whether to deal with the HCI in London or claim that we have lost the passport or something or approach the passport office in Bangalore where it was issued?

Thx.