Baalu replaces Karunanidhi in K'theevu plea

NEW DELHI: DMK will pursue the PIL its late leader M Karunanidhi filed against the handing over of Katchatheevu Island to Sri Lanka by substituting him with T R Baalu as the petitioner.

Accepting the request of senior advocate P Wilson, a bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan allowed the application filed by DMK for replacement of Karunanidhi, who passed away on Aug 7, 2018, with Baalu. Wilson said ceding the island to Lanka was illegal and unconstitutional.

Karunanidhi had filed the PIL in 2013 in the SC seeking to declare the agreements of June 26 and June 28 of 1974 and the agreement of March 23, 1976, between India and Sri Lanka through which the former ceded control over the island to the latter, as unconstitutional. It had also sought a direction to the Union govt to retrieve Katchatheevu as part of TN and as an integral part of India.