Centre on Saturday distanced itself from Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval’s submission in the Supreme Court that India has no jurisdiction to detain an Italian ship from which marines shot dead two Indian fishermen, asserting that it happened in Indian waters.
“Government is clear that the incident happened in Indian waters,” Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan told reporters in Chennai.
“It might be his personal opinion,” Mr. Vasan said, responding to Mr. Raval’s submission that the ship Enrica Lexie cannot be detained as it was not within Indian territorial waters when the two marines aboard it had allegedly shot dead two Indian fishermen on February 15.
The ASG’s submission in the apex court had drawn sharp reactions in Kerala with the family of the victims, the Latin Catholic Church and fishery unions expressing shock and anguish over the matter.
Seizing on the development, the critics said ASG’s submission amounted to reinforcing Italy’s assertion that Indian courts had no jurisdiction to try the case since the alleged incident happened when the ship was in international waters.
The ruling Congress-led UDF in Kerala also found itself in a bind as ASG’s submission contradicted the stand of the government headed by Oommen Chandy which firmly held that India has every legal competence to try the case under its law.
Keywords: Enrica Lexie, Italian Marines, Kerala fishermen killing, Union Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan
By this time legal heirs of victims had preferred to refer to the permanent Lok Adalat their admiralty suit seeking compensation from the owner of the vessel based on the opinion of the Division Bench to explore a settlement option. The Italian government had rightly agreed for paying a compensation of Rs. 1 crore to each bereaved family.It will be laudable if our central government will not bend knees before the diplomatic mission from Italy and will stand for proving our sovereignty off Indian shoreline. The compliance of compensation to victims’ families should not be viewed as prologue to freeing the accused marines without establishing India’s dominion in EEC. The unresolved issue of neglecting India’s sovereignty in its EEZ and lack of safety to our fishermen will continue to haunt our minds. In the due course, our nation’s antagonist factions and mafia should not be motivated to take advantage and try to attempt for illegal arms trade in our coastal hamlets while our scared fishermen gets prompted to equip themselves with fire arms at least for their self defence. Thus our External Affairs’ ministry must act inconspicuously to prevent the plight of our fishing communities.
“It might be his personal opinion,” Mr. Vasan said. This is the place where the ASG made his personal openion ?. If he represent for the Government, his submission should be for the Government not at his personal capacity. I think he is not fit for his job, he should be quit.
It is nearly 3 months since the shooting has occurred. Kerala Police has the ship Enrica Lexie in its custody for two months to examine the records. Even then it has not preferred charges in a court. Why the ballistic tests are not yet finished? Why not the location, time and other details of the shooting is not being released. What is the meaning of ascertaining that the shooting occurred in Indian waters without giving the exact location and produce records?
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