MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the union home ministry to decide on an application submitted by a Sri Lankan refugee, seeking a certificate of naturalisation in 2011, within two months.
Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan passed the order on a petition filed by R Maheswary (70). Maheswary stated in her petition that she was born in Sri Lanka in 1954 and came to India with her family due to the ethnic conflicts in November 1983.
She was issued a special certificate of registration for Sri Lankan Tamils by the Madurai city police commissioner and had applied for Indian Citizenship through naturalisation in 2011, she added.
Maheswary received a letter from the ministry on June 12, 2018, that the government decided to grant her citizenship and she was told to renounce Sri Lankan citizenship and pay Rs 13,500 for completing the procedure. Although she fulfilled the requirements, she was not issued a certificate of naturalisation to date.
As she renounced her Sri Lankan citizenship, she is currently stateless, the petitioner stated and sought the court’s intervention.
Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan disposed of the petition by directing the union ministry to consider and decide on her application based on the June 2018 communication and Rule 15 of the Citizenship Rules, 2009, within two months.