18 October 2022 10:03 am
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has said that the principles of the 2019 Citizen (Amendment) Act can be applied to Hindu Tamils who were forced to abandon Sri Lanka.
A Single Judge Bench of Justice G R Swaminathan said that although Sri Lanka is not covered under the CAA, Hindu Tamils in the island nation could obtain Indian citizenship under the Act as they were victims of racial strife, One India reported.
"Though Sri Lanka does not fall within the said amendment, the very same principle is equally applicable," he said. "One can take judicial notice of the fact that the Hindu Tamils of Sri Lanka were the primary victims of the racial strife," the court said.
It may be noted that this humanitarian act was brought in by the Modi government to expedite the citizenship process for religiously persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
This is applicable to those who arrived in India as refugees before December 13 2014.
Although the persecuted Hindus are not covered under this act, the High Court has asked the Centre to consider the matter in 16 weeks. The order was passed on a petition filed by S Ahirami, a 29 yer old girl from Sri Lanka. She moved to India due to ethnic victimisation and had applied for Indian citizenship.
The order was passed on a petition filed by S Ahirami, a 29 yer old girl from Sri Lanka. She moved to India due to ethnic victimisation and had applied for Indian citizenship.
Abirami was born in Tirchy in 1993. She did her schooling in India and even received an Aadhar card. Her attempts to get citizenship however did not succeed. She requested that the District Magistrate grant her permission to send her application to the Centre for citizenship. The court noted that the Ahirami is the daughter of migrant parents and was born in India.
The court said that because she has never been a Sri Lankan citizen, the issue of renunciation does not arise. The court said if her plea is denied, she would become stateless. The court then directed the Assistant Solicitor General and Additional Government Pleader to forward her application to the Centre for consideration while giving the government six weeks time to respond.