MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the regional special deputy collector of a refugee camp in Kottapattu of Tiruchirappalli district to certify a woman, who was an inmate at a Sri Lankan refugee camp, as a repatriated citizen of India.
The petitioner, Jayamani, was born in Sri Lanka in 1961 and married Venugopal in 1978. They were living in Sri Lanka and later came to India as repatriates under the Indo-Ceylon Agreement, 1964. She stayed at a Sri Lankan refugee camp in Kottapattu of Tiruchy between December 1990 and October 31, 2006.
The Thiruporur tahsildar issued a certificate in Jayamani’s favour in January 2021, stating that she was a repatriated citizen of India. When the petitioner approached the regional special deputy collector of the camp, a certificate was issued on April 15, 2021, describing her as a Sri Lankan refugee.
Justice GR Swaminathan was hearing a petition filed by Jayamani, who claimed that she was not a Sri Lankan refugee but an Indian repatriate from Sri Lanka.
She submitted that the misdescription of the certificate had serious civil consequences, and sought to quash the regional special deputy collector’s order.
Hearing the arguments, the court said the Thiruporur tahsildar’s certificate holds good, and the impugned certificate issued by the regional special deputy collector needed modification.
The regional special deputy collector was directed to issue a fresh certificate certifying that the petitioner is a repatriated citizen of India, and was an inmate of the refugee camp at Kottapattu. The certificate shall be issued without any delay, the court said.