By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Friday rejected a plea seeking direction to the central government to fly the ailing mother of the slain Tamil Tigers chief to Chennai for medical treatment.
Parvathi Ammal, 86 and mother of Velupillai Prabhakaran, is suffering from paralysis. She is presently in Colombo.
A bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice H.L. Dattu asked the petitioner-counsel R. Karuppan: “Is it a case for interference by this court?”
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi announced this month that the central government had agreed that Parvathi Ammal could come to India for medical treatment provided she made no contacts with political groups.
The woman had flown into Chennai April 16 from Kuala Lumpur but was sent back on the same plane to Malaysia by Indian authorities.
On Friday, the apex court said that Parvathi Ammal or her counsel would have to follow the Madras High Court directions and make a representation to the Tamil Nadu government for coming to Chennai.
The judges added that the high court order favoured them and there was nothing that warranted the Supreme Court’s interference.
The high court April 30 told Prabhakaran’s mother and Karuppan to make a representation to the state government. Within 15 days, the state government would refer it to the central government with its comments, it said.
The final decision would be taken by the central government, it said.
Justice Sathasivam, referring to the high court order, asked Karuppan what more he wanted by way of an apex court order.
Karuppan was asked if he had represented to the state government as directed by the high court. He replied in affirmative and said the matter was awaiting a decision by the central government.
Prabhakaran, the founder leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was killed along with his top lieutenants in May last year by the Sri Lankan military.
Prabhakaran’s parents had lived in Tamil Nadu for a long time before moving back to Sri Lanka’s northeast in 2003 when large parts of the Tamil majority region were under LTTE control.
The parents were taken into custody after Prabhakaran was killed. After Prabhakaran’s father died, his widow shifted to Malaysia, which is home to a large number of Sri Lankan Tamils. She is now in Sri Lanka.