The Madras High Court has rejected a plea from a retired professor to restrain the Government of India from participating in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held at Colombo in Sri Lanka in the middle of November.
The issue touched upon the foreign policy of the Union government and this court did not have the expertise to analyse the same, the First Bench of Chief Justice R K Agrawal and Justice M Sathyanarayanan observed on Tuesday.
The Bench was dismissing a public interest writ petition from Saraswathi Govindaraj, a retired professor in social science, living in Journalists Colony, Thiruvanmiyur.
The petitioner contended that in gross violation of human rights, the Sri lankan army killed hundreds of Tamil civilians living in the northern part of the Island in the name of war against the LTTE in 2009.
The atrocities committed by the Lankan forces amounted to genocide under the International Law.
“We, the citizens of India, are committed to uphold human rights and to adhere to the International Covenants prescribing mandatory compliance to the principles of human rights. We are constrained to make the request to ensure compliance with Article 51(c) of Indian Constitution and the Covenants, which are binding upon India,” she said and prayed for a direction to the Union External Affairs Ministry to consider her representation dated September 10 last.