MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to decide, within four months, on an application by an Indian woman seeking citizenship for her two minor sons born in India to her and a Sri Lankan refugee.
Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the order on a petition filed by N Lingammal of Virudhunagar seeking the above relief. According to the order, the woman was born in Virudhunagar district and had married one Naleem, a Sri Lankan refugee, in 2010. The couple had two sons, aged 15 and 11, respectively.
Lingammal stated that, as per Section 3(1)(c) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, since one of the parents is a citizen of India by birth and the child was also born in India,the child is entitled to the benefit of citizenship.
But, it was stated that Lingammal’s children were also registered in Sri Lanka by the authorities there.
Though she made an application to the Union Home Ministry in November last year, no decision has been taken on it, she noted, and moved the high court seeking a direction to the Indian government to grant her sons Indian Citizenship within a stipulated time to be fixed by the court.
When the case was heard recently, the Deputy Solicitor General of India sought time to file a counter-affidavit stating that it was the district collector who had to process the application.
However, the state government counsel told the court that the Virudhunagar collector would conduct an inquiry after receiving the application and forward the details to the centre. Hearing both sides, the judge issued the above direction.