Former Air Force officer moves Kerala High Court for citizenship
The petitioner was discharged from the Air Force in 1998 on completion of the Short Service Commission
Kochi: The first Keralite woman officer to serve in the Air Force under the Short Service Commission has moved Kerala High Court against the refusal of the government to accept her application for Indian citizenship.
Sreelatha Bhaskaran of Perumpuzha, Kollam, in her petition claimed that her passport was revoked by an ex-parte order passed by a US court over a dispute on the custody of her child. She submitted that she is the legal custodian of her child and that she had acquired US citizenship under matrimonial compulsion.
In 1997, she was married to a NRI working in New York while she was serving in Indian Air Force. After marriage, her husband became a US citizen.
The petitioner was discharged from the Air Force in 1998 on completion of the Short Service Commission. A child was born to them on December 10, 2005.
According to her, she then came to India. The relationship with her husband also got strained and they got legally separated after getting order from both US and Indian courts.
However, her husband moved a US court seeking custody of their son and got an ex parte order. She submitted that she got favourable orders from the family court in Kollam regarding the custody of her child. She sought a directive to restore her citizenship.