Chennai, Dec 29 (BPNS)
The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday sought a status report from the Central government on the 68 fishermen from Tamil Nadu who are under judicial custody in Sri Lanka for allegedly violating the International waters.
A division bench of Justices C.V. Karthikeyan and Justice S. Srimathy sought a report from the central government on December 31 after taking note of the fact that the government of India had intervened in the matter and communicated to the Sri Lankan authorities.
The petitioner G. Thirumurugan, Coordinator of the Tamil Nadu Meenavar Paadhugaapu Urimayi Iyyakam based out of Ramanathapuram in his petition plead before the court to direct the central government and the state government to take immediate steps for the release of 68 Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu from the custody of Sri Lanka. He also mentioned in the plea for the release of the fishing boat of these fishermen.
Advocate General R. Shanmugasundaram in his reply said that the Sri Lankan authorities had charged that the Indian fishermen had poached into Lankan waters crossing the International marine border while fishing. He also submitted before the court that the fishermen were remanded in judicial custody by local courts in Sri Lanka. He also submitted before the court the communication made by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin with the central government regarding the release of the fishermen.
The Assistant Solicitor General, L. Victoria Gowri told the court that the Indian authorities were in talks with the Sri Lankan authorities and that Diplomatic channels have been opened.
The court on hearing the Advocate General and the Assistant Solicitor general, called upon the authorities concerned to put a time frame to get the fishermen back.
It may be noted that 43 fishermen were taken into custody by Sri Lankan authorities on December 18, 12 were taken into custody on December 19th, and on December 20th,13 more were arrested taking the total to 68 fishermen from Tamil Nadu. Eight boats of the fishermen were also under the custody of Sri Lankan authorities. A single fishing boat costs a minimum of 30 to 45 lakh rupees and this is the livelihood of the fishermen and the associations have taken up this matter also before the authorities as well as before the court.
