The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Union Government to submit its response to a PIL filed by AIADMK leader and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa,seeking directions for declaring the ceding of the Katchatheevu Island to Sri Lanka as unconstitutional besides retrieving the island that was ceded in 1974. Although a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan issued the notice,it sought to know the reason for opposing the treaty several decades after it was signed between the two nations. After 34 years you have woken up, the court remarked as it went through the PIL filed by Leader of Opposition,who has sought directions to the Union Government to take appropriate steps for retrieving it or alternatively,regain for Indian fishermen the right of access to the island and right to engage in fishing in the waters around it. Jayalalithaa has sought quashing of the March 23,1976 maritime boundary agreement which according to her deprived the fishing rights to Indian fishermen in the Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Mannar. The former chief minister has termed the treaty as unconstitutional as it involved the livelihood of thousands of fishermen in Tamil Nadu,whose fundamental rights are being violated due to action by the Sri Lankan authorities. Tracing the history of the 285 acres of Kachatheevu uninhabited island,the AIADMK chief complained that in 1974 the then Indian Government ceded the territory to Sri Lanka through an executive agreement in violation of Article 368 of the Constitution. The petition stated that the Indo-Lanka agreement of 1974 and 1976,by which Katchatheevu was ceded to Sri Lanka (by the then Indira Gandhi Government) was unconstitutional under Article 368,which required any ceding of territory to be approved by Parliament redrawing the Indian territory post-cessation. But in the case of Kachatheevu,no such law was made and instead the territory was given away by an executive agreement by the Centre, Jayalalithaa submitted in her PIL,wherein Union Cabinet Secretariat has been named as the first respondent,followed by Union Secretary of External Affairs,Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary and the District Collector of Ramanathapuram as other parties.
