HC stays deportation of another Sri Lankan Tamil to Colombo
CHENNAI: A day after the Madras high court restrained the state and central government from deporting a Sri Lankan Tamil, Eela Nehru, to the island-nation, yet another Lankan Tamil RSenthuran earned a similar respite from the court on Friday.
A Subramani, TNN | Aug 23, 2013
CHENNAI: A day after the Madras high court restrained the state and central government from deporting a Sri Lankan Tamil, Eela Nehru, to the island-nation, yet another Lankan Tamil RSenthuran earned a similar respite from the court on Friday.
A division bench of Justice V Dhanapalan and Justice C T Selvam said the Centre and the TamilNadu government shall maintain status quo, and shall refrain from deporting Senthuran to Sri Lanka, till August 27 when his case and that ofEela Nehru would be taken up for further hearing.
When the matter was taken up, advocates S Duraisamy and V Elangovan, counsel for Senthuran, submitted that he was leading a peaceful life and had been abiding by requirements such as reporting to the jurisdictional tahsildar. Though initially lodged in the special camp in Sivaganga district, he was allowed to move out of the camp by the tahsildar in order to join a private firm in Chennai.
P Wilson, additional solicitor-general of India, however, opposed any court intervention in the matter, saying Senthuran's case could not be compared with that of Eela Nehru. "Senthuran entered the country illegally and had been involved in activities detrimental to the nation's integrity," he said, adding that he had flouted the undertaking he had given to the tahsildar too. He has not joined the private company and instead was indulging in unlawful activities, he said relying on a report sent by the Tamil Nadu government itself. He is not staying at the address he had given to the authorities, he said. The Centre approved the state government order of deportation.
Denying the averments, Duraisamy said the Centre was misleading the court, as Senthuran was very much in touch with revenue as well as Q Branch officials, who hold periodical inquiry with him. He is one among the three persons against whom the Centre has issued deportation orders. The third person, Soundararajan, is serving a 10-year life term in Tamil Nadu, and he has not chosen to file petition against the possible deportation so far, Duraisamy told TOI.
Senthuran said he was son of a jeweller in Sri Lanka, and that he had come to India in 2011. Since then he had been detained and jailed for brief spells several times, and he had undertaken fast on many occasions against his transfer to refugee camps. In his petition, he said the Sri Lankan authorities would butcher him if he were to be deported to that country. "I have to face the end of my life at the hands of Sri Lankan government," he said.
When the matter was taken up, advocates S Duraisamy and V Elangovan, counsel for Senthuran, submitted that he was leading a peaceful life and had been abiding by requirements such as reporting to the jurisdictional tahsildar. Though initially lodged in the special camp in Sivaganga district, he was allowed to move out of the camp by the tahsildar in order to join a private firm in Chennai.
P Wilson, additional solicitor-general of India, however, opposed any court intervention in the matter, saying Senthuran's case could not be compared with that of Eela Nehru. "Senthuran entered the country illegally and had been involved in activities detrimental to the nation's integrity," he said, adding that he had flouted the undertaking he had given to the tahsildar too. He has not joined the private company and instead was indulging in unlawful activities, he said relying on a report sent by the Tamil Nadu government itself. He is not staying at the address he had given to the authorities, he said. The Centre approved the state government order of deportation.
Denying the averments, Duraisamy said the Centre was misleading the court, as Senthuran was very much in touch with revenue as well as Q Branch officials, who hold periodical inquiry with him. He is one among the three persons against whom the Centre has issued deportation orders. The third person, Soundararajan, is serving a 10-year life term in Tamil Nadu, and he has not chosen to file petition against the possible deportation so far, Duraisamy told TOI.
Senthuran said he was son of a jeweller in Sri Lanka, and that he had come to India in 2011. Since then he had been detained and jailed for brief spells several times, and he had undertaken fast on many occasions against his transfer to refugee camps. In his petition, he said the Sri Lankan authorities would butcher him if he were to be deported to that country. "I have to face the end of my life at the hands of Sri Lankan government," he said.
