Madras High Court summons NRT Commissioner for telling a Sri Lankan refugee that he is dead
Justices M.S. Ramesh and Sunder Mohan direct the Commissioner of Rehabilitation and Welfare of Non Resident Tamils to be present in the court on July 16
The Madras High Court on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 summoned the Commissioner of Rehabilitation and Welfare of Non-Resident Tamils (CRWNRT) for explaining how a Sri Lankan refugee, who was very much alive and lodged at the Tiruchi special camp, was informed that he is dead.
A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and Sunder Mohan directed the Commissioner to be present in the court on July 16. The orders were passed while hearing a writ petition filed by the refugee’s aunt for transferring him to the Uchampatti camp in Madurai.
During the course of hearing, the petitioner’s counsel P. Pugalenthi told the court that his client T. Nageswari, 63, as well as her nephew Kanthan alias K. Krishnakumar were Sri Lankan refugees residing in Tamil Nadu since 1990 but they had been lodged in different camps.
Krishnakumar was arrested in 2015 in a case booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967. He was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous impirsonment by a Ramanathapuram sessions court in 2018 but the punishment was subsequently reduced to seven years by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
On completion of the sentence and after application of the remission period, he was released from prison on July 1, 2022 and lodged at the Tiruchi special camp. Since then, the petitioner had been making multiple representations to let him reside with her in the Tiruchi camp.
Her nephew too made a representation to the Chief Minister’s Special Cell on July 12, 2023 seeking permission to reside in Tamil Nadu permanently. The CM’s special cell had forwarded the representation to the CRWNRT on August 4, 2023 for necessary action.
The Commissionerate, in turn, wrote back to Mr. Krishnakumar on April 23, 2024 stating: “Since the applicant Krishnakumar alias Kanthan is dead, there is no necessity to take further action on the basis of his representation.”
Stating that the supposedly dead person himself had received the communication from the Commissionerate by providing necessary acknowledgement, the counsel said, the officials had failed to verify the facts properly. He insisted on issuing a direction to shift him from Tiruchi to Madurai special camp forthwith.
- Telegram
SEE ALL
PRINT
refugee