Sections of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka have legal options to acquire Indian passports. Getting Indian passport is as good as getting Indian citizenship, though citizenship falls within the exclusive executive domain of the Central government.
Articulating this point, specialists refer to two instances wherein the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court came to the rescue of two refugees — K. Nalini, a resident of Kottapattu camp in Tiruchi; and Neyatitus of Nattarasankottai in Sivaganga district — in getting passports issued to them on the ground that both were Indian citizens.
In the case of Ms. Nalini, the court had, in August 2022, held that she should be issued the passport considering that she was born to refugees at the Mandapam camp in April 1986. Justice G.R. Swaminathan observed that as per Section 3 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, every person born in India between January 26, 1950 and July 1, 1987 was an Indian citizen.
As for Mr. Neyatitus, the court had, in April 2023, asked the authorities to issue the passport to the 21-year-old man, whose mother was an Indian citizen and father, a refugee. He was born in January 2002, about two years before the law was amended in such a way that for a person who was born in the country to be regarded as a citizen, one of the parents should be a citizen of the country and the other must not be an illegal migrant. The amendment came into force on December 3, 2004.
The general legal position governing refugees in the country is that they are considered illegal migrants even as they are permitted to get several concessions and benefits. Some of the issues concerning the refugees came up for discussion at a seminar in the city a few days ago. In July 2022, replying to a question on the refugee policy, the Union government told the Rajya Sabha that “all foreign nationals (including refuge seekers) are governed by the provisions contained in The Foreigners Act, 1946, The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and The Citizenship Act, 1955. The existing laws for dealing with foreigners are sufficient to deal with refugees too.” In March 2021, the government had informed the House that “any foreigner, including a Sri Lankan citizen, may acquire Indian citizenship by registration or naturalisation after fulfilling the eligibility criteria” laid down in the Citizenship Act and its rules.
However, it has been the stand of the authorities in the State that a circular of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued to the Tamil Nadu government in 1986 advising the latter not to entertain applications from Sri Lankan refugees for citizenship, comes in their way of considering applications though the applicants might have been otherwise eligible to be given the citizenship.
