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"The amendments to the Enemy Property Act, 1968 will plug the loopholes in the Act to ensure that the enemy properties that have been vested in the Custodian remain so and they do not revert back to the enemy subject or enemy firm."

          The Central Government through the Custodian of Enemy Property for India is in possession of enemy properties spread across many States in the country. In addition, there are also movable properties categorized as enemy properties.

In the above circumstances, it has become necessary to amend the Enemy Property Act, 1968, inter alia, to clarify the legislative intention with retrospective effect. I wish to record in this august House the steps taken by Hon'ble Chief Minister Puratchi Thalaivi Amma since 1991 for retrieving Katchatheevu back. On several occasions, Amma had urged the Union Government and Prime Ministers, directly and through letters, to get back Katchatheevu. In September 2004, Amma personally presented a memorandum to then Prime Minister, Mr.  Manmohan Singh, calling upon the Centre to retrieve this island through "lease in perpetuity" and restore the rights of fishermen. "However, the Union Government did not take any step to provide lasting solution to the problem of fishermen of Tamil Nadu."

In June 2011 the Tamil Nadu Government led by Hon'ble Chief Minister Puratchi Thalaivi Amma filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the declaration of the 1974 and 1976 agreements between India and Sri Lanka on ceding of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka as unconstitutional after the Tamil Nadu State Assembly had adopted and passed a resolution seeking the retrieval of the Katchatheevu back.

The court ruled in the Berubari case that the cession of Indian territory to another    country   had  to  be  ratified  by   Parliament     through    amendment         of     the Constitution. Katchatheevu was ceded to Sri Lanka  in  violation   of  the court under the 1974 and 1976 agreements without the approval of    two    Houses               of  Parliament. …* best   known   to  him has  resulted in ceding  of   Katchatheevu island   to  Sri Lanka  and  is  the root  cause for  all the harassments and problems faced by the Indian fishermen from the atrocious Sri Lankan Navy.

Though   the   DMK  party  was  sharing power in the last   three  successive  Union  Governments [1999-2013], Mr. Karunanidhi  led  DMK  made no efforts to retrieve Katchatheevu or protect the State's fishermen from the attacks of the Sri Lankan Navy. Consequent to the ceding of the Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka, hundreds of the fishermen were killed in the shootings of the Sri Lankan Navy. The Katchatheevu Island was historically part of the Ramnad Raja's Zamindari, and later it became part of the Madras Presidency. The island was always of strategic importance and special significance for fishing operations in the area. 

This recognition of an island is gross injustice to fishermen of Tamil Nadu since the Katchatheevu Island is socio-economically and culturally important to the native people of Tamil Nadu from time immemorial.Katchatheevu is strategically important for fishing grounds used by fishermen from both countries. The Indo-Sri Lankan agreement allows Indian fishermen to fish around Katchatheevu and to dry their nets on the island.But while Indian fishermen do fishing near Katchatheevu they are threatened and fired by the Sri Lankan authorities. Indian fishermen most often get arrested by the Sri Lankan authorities and their boats and fishing equipments were seized.