S NALINI SRIKARAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant, Nalini and her husband, Srikaran alias Murugan were arrested in connection with the murder of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. While in prison, the appellant gave birth to a female child, Megara on 21. 1. 1992 in Chengalpattu Medical College Hospital at Chengalpattu. Her birth was also registered in Chengalpattu Municipality on 24. 1. 1992 under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. She lived with her mother in the prison. Then in 1998, the Special Court awarded death penalty to all 26 accused, including the appellant and her husband. In view of this precarious situation, the appellant's mother-in-law, a Sri Lanka citizen took minor Megara to Sri Lanka with her. Megara was given an emergency passport by the Sri Lanka Government to travel to Sri Lanka and she continues to stay in Sri Lanka since 1998. In appeal, the appellant's death penalty was converted into life imprisonment and she has been kept in Special Prison for Women at Vellore. It appears that the appellant's daughter applied for permission to travel to India to the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka on 15. 4. 2004. Since the Indian High Commissioner did not pass any order on the said application, the appellant filed Writ Petition No. 21263 of 2005 before this Court and by order dated 22. 9. 2005, the respondent Union of India was directed to consider and pass order on the application of the appellant's daughter, seeking permission to travel to India, within six weeks. The respondent gave permission for the appellant's daughter to travel to India to meet her parents. Thereafter, she went back to Sri Lanka.

(2.) THE present writ petition has been filed by the appellant for a mandamus directing the respondent to grant visa to her daughter Megara to travel to India. The appellant says that the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is fast deteriorating and the armed conflict between Sri Lankan Army and ethnic minority Tamil group has worsened. As a result of the continuous fight between the two armed combatants, the schools and colleges in the Tamil areas have been closed. The displaced families are coming in large numbers to India as refugees. The Indian Government is not only accommodating the refugees, but also rehabilitating them in various camps on humanitarian consideration. According to her because of the armed conflict, her daughter's education is also affected and she is unable to go to school for the past one year and her life itself is in danger. Therefore, her daughter has decided to come back to India. The appellant's daughter and mother-in-law applied for visa on 20. 5. 2006. The Indian High Commission granted visa to the appellant's mother-in-law on 22. 5. 2006 itself, but no order was passed on the travel permission documents of the appellant's daughter. The appellant says that her daughter is an Indian citizen by virtue of Section 3 (b) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (Act 57 of 1955) and she was forced to go to Sri Lanka when she was only six years old, with the appellant's mother-in-law, because of the factors beyond her control since she had no other option. The appellant is therefore seeking direction to the respondent to grant a visa to her daughter to visit India.

(3.) WHILE the petition was pending the request of the appellant's daughter for issue of visa was came to be rejected by the respondent on the following grounds :