HC tells T.N. Govt. to let Sri Lankan return home

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, FEB. 23. The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu Government to permit a Sri Lankan Tamil, who was released after conviction in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, to leave for Sri Lanka after he was issued a passport by Sri Lanka.

Mr. Justice K.P. Sivasubramaniam passed the orders on a writ petition filed by Mr. B. Sivarooban. The detenu said he came to India in May 1991 along with other refugees. Unable to go to Colombo to get travel documents, he stayed clandestinely. He was arrested by the CBI in Jaipur in connection with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The trial court sentenced him to death, along with 25 others. On appeal, the Supreme Court, in May 1999, set aside the conviction. However, immediately later, he was detained under the Foreigners Act and lodged at the Vellore special camp.

Mr. Sivarooban sought permission from the State Public Secretary to leave India. Receiving no response, he filed a writ petition before the High Court, which, in August 2000, directed the Government to pass orders on his representation within four months. Though no orders were passed, the Government wrote to the Vellore Collector stating that the matter had been taken up with the Union Government and a response awaited. In his petition, Mr. Sivarooban said his detention under the Foreigners Act was only to regulate his movement in India. As he did not want to reside here, his detention order was liable to be set aside.

The State Government countered that it had permitted him to go to the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission at Chennai to get a passport. Once it was issued, Mr. Sivarooban would be entitled to leave the country.

Disposing the petition with a direction to the Government to permit him to leave India once he got his passport, the Judge said the order would not operate as a precedent for other cases.

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