Thu Nov 14 06:41:40 UTC 2024: ## Madras High Court Orders Union Home Secretary to Decide on Sri Lankan Refugee’s Citizenship Application
**Madurai, November 14, 2024:** The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Union Home Secretary to decide on the citizenship application of a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee, R. Jegaprashanth, within four weeks. The court also instructed the authorities to provide Jegaprashanth an opportunity to be heard.
Jegaprashanth, a resident of S.S. Colony in Madurai, arrived in India with his mother in 1983 following the July riots in Sri Lanka. He has been living in India ever since and has been registered as a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee.
In 2011, Jegaprashanth applied for Indian citizenship under naturalization, but his application has been pending for over a decade. While his mother’s application for citizenship was accepted in 2018, his remains unresolved.
The court’s directive comes after Jegaprashanth filed a writ petition highlighting the delay in processing his application. The court has stressed that it did not express any opinion on the merits of the petition and has simply requested the Union Home Secretary to consider and decide on the application.
The Tamil Nadu government’s Home Secretary and Madurai District Collector have also been listed as respondents in the case.
First Piper 