September 13, 2008	Saturday	Ramazan 12, 1429

COLOMBO, Sept 12: Sri Lanka has said that Indian courts have no jurisdiction over it, and that it is not bound by any ruling that the Indian Supreme Court may give on Kachchativu in the case filed by J. Jayalalithaa, a former chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

“A ruling given by a court of law in a jurisdiction outside Sri Lanka will not be binding on Sri Lanka,” Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told parliament on Thursday.

“Such a court order would not alter or have an impact on a bilateral treaty concluded between two sovereign states,” he added.

Jayalalithaa had challenged, on historical and legal grounds, the transfer of Kachchativu to Sri Lanka in 1974. Sri Lankans, however, argue that Kachchativu was never transferred or ceded to Sri Lanka, as alleged by Jayalalithaa. All that the 1974 and 1976 treaties did was to recognise Sri Lanka’s historical ownership of, and its sovereignty over, Kachchativu, which lay about 15 miles north east of Rameswaram in India, and about 14 miles south west of Delft island in Sri Lanka.