Context
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs to consider the citizenship application of Mathine, a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee who has lived in India since 1984. Mathine had applied for Indian citizenship under Section 5(1)(a) of the Citizenship Act in 2022, but no action had been taken on her application.
· The court's intervention stresses the need for the timely processing of refugee applications and highlights the issue of statelessness affecting refugees in India.
About Citizenship by Registration
The Citizenship Act, 1955 provides provisions for Citizenship by Registration for certain individuals.
Key categories eligible for registration include:
· Person of Indian Origin: Must have lived in India for at least seven years before applying.
· Foreign Person Married to an Indian Citizen: Must have lived in India for seven years before applying.
· Persons of Legal Age: Parents must be Indian citizens, or the applicant must be registered as an OCI cardholder for five years and have lived in India for twelve months before applying.
· Minor Children: Parents must be Indian citizens.
Important Notes:
· A person of full age must take an oath of allegiance.
· Individuals who have renounced or lost their Indian citizenship cannot apply for registration.
Historical Background of Citizenship for Indian-Origin Tamils
1. As Indentured Plantation Workers: Indian-origin Tamils were brought to Sri Lanka by the British as laborers in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
· They were socially isolated from native Sri Lankan communities due to discriminatory colonial policies.
2. Denial of Citizenship and Stateless Population: After Sri Lanka's independence in 1948, Indian-origin Tamils were marginalized due to rising Sinhalese nationalism.
· By 1960, around one million Tamils were left stateless, without political rights or recognition.
3. Bilateral Pacts and Grant of Citizenship: The Sirimavo-Shastri Pact (1964) and Sirimavo-Gandhi Pact (1974) granted citizenship to six lakh Indian-origin Tamils, allowing them to repatriate to India.
4. Civil Wars and the Asylum Crisis: The Sri Lankan Civil War caused many Tamils to seek refuge in India, leading to a government directive in 1983 halting citizenship grants to refugees arriving after that year.
5. Classified as Illegal Migrants under CAA 2003: Those who arrived after 1983 were considered "illegal migrants" under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2003, worsening their statelessness.
Overcoming Statelessness: Legal Pathways
1. Legal Approaches to Statelessness: Recent judicial rulings have provided guidance for overcoming the statelessness of Indian-origin Tamils.
2. Key Legal Judgments:
· P. Ulaganathan vs Government of India (2019): The Madras High Court ruled that prolonged statelessness violated the fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life and liberty.
· Abirami S. vs The Union of India (2022): The court asserted that statelessness should be avoided and recommended extending the CAA 2019 provisions to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.
· Supreme Court Case: Committee for C.R. of C.A.P. vs State of Arunachal Pradesh (2015): India’s undertakings in the 1964 and 1974 pacts created a legitimate expectation for Indian-origin Tamils to be granted citizenship.
3. Obligatory International Customary Law: De jure statelessness, recognized by international law, obligates countries to address stateless populations created by policy failures, as seen in the case of Indian-origin Tamils.
