The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court today directed the Tamil Nadu government to submit its view on the proposed sale of two ships to Sri Lankan Navy after the state Additional Advocate General submitted that the Assembly had passed a resolution against it.
On January 21, the Centre, in its counter to a petition, stated that Sri Lankan Navy did not kill even a single Indian fishermen in Indian waters since 2011 and denied having any proposal to sell warships to it.
"Only Offshore Patrol Vehicles (OPVs) would be sold," the Centre had stated.
Deputy Secretary (Sri Lanka) Mayank Joshi, who filed the counter on behalf of the External Affairs and Defence ministries, had said India's prestige would go up with the selling of the OPVs.
Petitioner Stalin, an advocate, had submitted that the warships could be used by Sri Lankan Navy to attack fishermen, who were repeatedly fired at in mid sea.
Joshi had said the ICG ships on patrol duty had not come across any incidents of Indian fishermen being fired upon while fishing in Indian waters. The Sri Lankan Navy had also said it never entered Indian waters and had assured that they have been adhering to a "No firing" policy on Indian fishermen.
Justice R Sudhakar and Justice V M Velumani posted the case for for hearing after two weeks.
