Thirty-four years after being born and brought up in India by his Sri Lankan parents, R. Bahison of Ramapuram in Chennai has now been labelled as ‘stateless’ by the Collectorate and faces the threat of being lodged in a special camp at Tiruchi despite being in possession of an Indian passport, Aadhaar card, PAN card, ration card, voter’s ID card and so on.
Justice M. Dhandapani of the Madras High Court has, however, passed an interim order restraining the Centre as well as the State Government from taking any coercive action against the individual till October 8, 2025 and directed both the governments to respond to his plea seeking citizenship by naturalisation under Section 6 of the Citizenship Act of 1955.
The orders were passed after senior counsel P.R. Raman, assisted by Sandesh Saravanan, brought it to the notice of the court that the writ petitioner’s parents V. Ravindran and R. Jaya had fled from Trincomalee during the ethnic conflict in the island nation and reached India in 1991. They were initially lodged at the Sri Lankan refugee camp at Mandapam in Ramanathapuram district.
Subsequently, the petitioner’s mother, who was pregnant while entering India, was shifted to the Senthalai camp in Pudukottai and gave birth to him on September 21, 1991. Owing to the disbanding of certain camps in 1992, the family was allowed to reside elsewhere but remained under monitoring of Bureau of Immigration through issuance of a special certificate for registration of Sri Lankan Tamils.
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Claiming that he was under the impression of having become an Indian citizen by birth, the petitioner, in his affidavit, said he pursued his schooling at Ramapuram and Porur and then obtained an engineering degree in computer science from a private college in Pallavaram. He also secured a job as a web developer in a private company in Chennai before marrying a Sri Lankan in 2024.
After the marriage, he applied for reissuance of his Indian passport by including his wife’s name so that she could continue to reside with him in India without much hassle. The Regional passport office accepted his application and reissued the passport by including her name as his spouse on March 27, 2025. However, trouble began brewing thereafter owing to an adverse police verification report.
The petitioner was informed by the police that he could not claim Indian citizenship by birth owing to the 1986 amendment to the Citizenship Act. As per the amendment, that came into force from July 1, 1987, citizenship by birth could be claimed only if either of the parents were Indians. Since the petitioner’s father as well as mother were foreigners when he was born in 1991, he was not entitled to citizenship by birth.
Immediately, Mr. Bahison made an application to the Chennai Collector on May 8, 2025 seeking citizenship by naturalisation. On August 4, 2025, the Collectorate wrote to the Maduravoyal Taluk Tahsildar calling for an inquiry report with regard to the application filed by the “stateless” person. A copy of the Collectorate’s communication labelling the petitioner as ‘stateless’ was marked to the writ petitioner.
Thereafter, on August 21, 2025, the Fake Passport Investigation Wing attached to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in Chennai registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the writ petitioner under Sections 12(1)(b) and 12(1A)(a) of the Passports Act of 1967 and Sections 318(4), 336(3) and 340(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita on charges of cheating, forgery and submitting false documents to obtain Indian passport.
The FIR was booked on the basis of a complaint lodged by Immigration Officer Gurram K. Navina serving at the office of the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer under the Bureau of Immigration.
The petitioner was arrested on the same day and remanded in judicial custody. A metropolitan magistrate court for exclusive trial of CCB cases at Egmore dismissed his bail application on August 29, 2025 due to vehement objection by the prosecution. However, the Principal District and Sessions Judge S. Karthikeyan granted him bail on September 4, 2025 on condition to report before the CCB every day until further orders.
In a counter affidavit filed at the time of opposing his bail application, the police had stated steps were being taken to lodge the petitioner in the Tiruchi special camp to prevent him from fleeing the country until the conclusion of the trial in the criminal case. Hence, the petitioner had rushed to the High Court now with a plea to restrain the officials from lodging him in the special camp.
He contended that he would not be able to pursue his application for naturalisation if he gets lodged in the camp. “The petitioner was informed that he is stateless and ineligible for an Indian passport… Considering the prima facie case made out by the petitioner, there shall be an order of interim stay by directing the respondents not to take any coercive steps as against the petitioner till October 8, 2025,” Justice Dhandapani ordered.
Published – September 21, 2025 11:25 am IST
