34 years after being born and raised in India by Sri Lankan parents, litigant is declared 'stateless,' approaches: Madras High Court

Thirty-four years after being born and brought up in India by his Sri Lankan parents, R. Bahison of Ramapuram in Chennai has now been labelled as ‘stateless’ by the Collectorate.

- BY S VENKAT NARAYAN

He faces the threat of being lodged in a special camp at Tiruchi despite being in possession of an Indian passport, Aadhaar card, PAN card, ration card, voter's ID card, etc.

Justice M. Dhandapani of the Madras High Court has, however, passed an interim order restraining the Centre as well as the State Government from taking any coercive action against the individual till October 8, 2025 and directed both the governments to respond to his plea seeking citizenship by naturalisation under Section 6 of the Citizenship Act of 1955.

The orders were passed after senior counsel P.R. Raman, assisted by Sandesh Saravanan, brought it to the notice of the court that the writ petitioner’s parents V. Ravindran and R. Jaya had fled from Trincomalee during the ethnic conflict in the island nation and reached India in 1991. They were initially lodged at the Sri Lankan refugee camp at Mandapam in Ramanathapuram district.

Subsequently, the petitioner’s mother, who was pregnant while entering India, was shifted to the Senthalai camp in Pudukottai and gave birth to him on September 21, 1991. Owing to the disbanding of certain camps in 1992, the family was allowed to reside elsewhere but remained under monitoring of Bureau of Immigration through issuance of a special certificate for registration of Sri Lankan Tamils.