HC seeks status of Jaya's plea in SC on Katchatheevu retrieval

The Madras High Court today asked the Tamil Nadu government to inform it about the status of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa's petition in the Supreme Court seeking retrieval of Katchatheevu islet ceded by India to Sri Lanka in the 1970s.

It gave the directive during a hearing of a petition by Fishermen Care, an NGO, seeking to refer the matter of alleged human rights violations of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy for the past 34 to the International Court of Justice for 'breach' of the Indo-Sri Lanka agreement.

Jayalalithaa had in 2008 moved the apex court in her capacity as the AIADMK general secretary, seeking a direction to the Union government to declare as null and void the 1974 and 1976 agreements under which Katchatheevu was ceded, saying the accords were the root cause of the untold misery suffered by the state's fishermen.

When the petition by Fishermen Care came up for hearing, a division bench comprising justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad ordered the government to submit within 10 days the status about Jayalalithaa's plea.

Meanwhile, in a counter affidavit, the Additional Director of Fisheries detailed steps taken by the state government on the issue of arrests and attacks on the fishermen in the Palk Bay.

It said 85 Indian fishermen had been killed and 180 others injured in 168 incidents of firing by Lankan Naval personnel from 1991 to 2013. Thereafter, in a stray incident of shooting, 21-year-old fisherman Bridgo died and two others were injured.

The counter affidavit said the agreement signed between India and Sri Lanka on June 28, 1974 had determined Katchatheevu as a part of Sri Lanka and the islet was ceded by the Indian government "unilaterally" without obtaining the consent of both houses of Parliament.

The Tamil Nadu government was neither consulted nor taken into confidence before signing the 1974 agreement. It had later taken proactive steps for retrieving the islet and to protect the traditional fishing rights of the state fishermen in the Palk Bay.

Following an assembly resolution in June, 2011, the state revenue department, the custodian of the records pertaining to the ownership of Katchatheevu, had been impleaded in the petition filed by Jayalalithaa, the counter affidavit said.

The state assembly passed another resolution in March 2013, urging the Centre to take steps to get Katchatheevu back.

It was also submitted that as of August 16 this year, a total of 3,033 fishermen and 393 fishing boats, detained by the Sri Lankan Navy from 2011, had been released and brought back to the state.

At present, 29 fishermen and 177 boats were still in Sri Lankan custody.

The state chief minister had brought each and every incident of arrest of fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy to the notice of the prime minister and sought action to secure the release of all those in Lankan custody, the counter affidavit added.