The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Tamil Nadu government to clarify within two weeks the status of the children of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who were born in India for extending them with benefits.

The First Bench, of Chief Justice S.K.Kaul and Justice M.Sathyanarayanan, passed the interim order on a petition by R. Sri Priya of Ambattur, an advocate.

The petitioner said T. Nandhini, daughter of a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee staying in the Arachalur camp in Erode district, applied to join MBBS. But her application was rejected on the ground that she was a refugee. The girl scored a cut-off mark of 197.5 for counselling. The rejection of the application showed how the State sought to override human rights guaranteed to refugees under the Constitution and the international convention on the status of refugees.

In a counter, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said the applicant belonged to the open category (OC) with a cut-off mark of 197.5. The cut-off mark for admission to government medical colleges under the category was 199.25. For self-financing colleges, it was 198.25. Hence, Nandhini was not considered.

In 2002, the Full Bench of the High Court observed that special reservation should be applicable only to physically challenged, eminent sportsmen and children of freedom fighters and ex-servicemen. All other special categories were deleted from the list by the court. Among the conditions for admission through the single-window system was that a candidate be a citizen of India and a native of Tamil Nadu.

The Bench said the government’s affidavit, however, appeared to indicate that the girl did not deserve consideration. The authorities should clarify what could be the status of a child of a Tamil refugee who was born in India: whether any benefit at all was to be given to them or not. (The Hindu)