Indian SC stops deportation of ex-LTTE cadre

The Supreme Court of India has issued a stay on the deportation of Bhaskaran Kumarasamy, a former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), recognising the credible threat to his life if returned to Sri Lanka, Tamil Guardian reported on June 27.

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The ruling is being hailed as a significant intervention in a case that has drawn international concern over refugee rights, but contradicts another made just a few weeks ago.

While the Viswanathan-Kotiswar bench of the Supreme Court on June 24 stayed the deportation, last month a different bench led by Justice Dipankar Datta refused similar relief to another Eelam Tamil.

Kumarasamy, who fled Sri Lanka in 2004 during the final years of the armed conflict, has been fighting deportation for more than five years. On Monday (June 23), a bench comprising Justices K.V. Viswanathan and N. Kotiswar Singh stayed the deportation and sought responses from both the Union Government and the Tamil Nadu State Government regarding the status of the long-standing deportation order.

“Considering that the deportation order is five years and six months old, we would like to be apprised of the status of the deportation. Meanwhile, the deportation is stayed,” the bench stated, posting the matter for further hearing on August 4.