Sirimavo-Shastri Agreement of 1964

The Indo-Ceylon Agreement popularly known as “Sirimavo-Shastri Pact” or “Sirimavo-Shastri Agreement of 1964”, which was signed by the Prime Minister of Ceylon, Sirimavo Bandaranaike and the Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri on 30^th October 1964, which fixed the number of persons to be accepted or rejected as Ceylon's citizens. Some of the main points of the Agreement were as follows:

1. The declared objectives of this agreement is that all persons of Indian origin in Ceylon who have not been recognised either as citizens of Ceylon or as Citizens of India should become citizens either of Ceylon or of India.

2. The number of such persons is approximate 9,75,000 as of date. This figure does not include illicit immigrants and Indian passport holders.

3. 3,00,000 of these persons together with the natural increase in that number will be granted Ceylon citizenship by the Government of Ceylon; the Government of India will accept repatriation to India of 5,25,000 of these persons together with the natural increase in that number. The Government of India will confer citizenship on these persons

4. The status and future of the remaining 150,000 of these persons will be the subject matter of a separate agreement between the two governments.

5. The Government of India will accept repatriation of the persons to be repatriated within a period of 15 years from the date of this agreement, according to a programme as evenly phased as possible.

6. The grant of Ceylon citizenship under paragraph 3 and the process of repatriation under paragraph 3 shall both be passed over the period of 15 years and shall, as far as possible keep peace with each other in proportion to the relative numbers to be granted citizenship and to repatriated respectively.

7. The Government of Ceylon will grant to the persons to be repatriated to India during the period of their residence in Ceylon the same facilities as are enjoyed by citizens of other states (except facilities for remittances) and normal facilities for their continued residence, including free visas. The Government of Ceylon agrees that such of these persons as are gainfully employed on the date of this agreement shall continued in their employment until the date of their repatriation in accordance with the requirements of the phased programme or until they attain the age of 55 years, whichever is earlier.

8. Subject to the Exchange Control Regulations for the time being in force, which will not be discriminatory against the persons to be repatriated to India, the Government of Ceylon agrees to permit these persons to repatriate, at the time of their final departure for India, all their assets including their Provident Fund and gratuity amounts. The Government of Ceylon agrees that the maximum amount of assets, which any family shall be permitted to repatriate, shall not be reduced to less than Rs. 4,000.

9. Two registers will be prepared as early as possible, one containing the names of persons who will be granted Ceylon citizenship, the other containing the names of persons to be repatriated to India. The completion of these registers, however, is not a condition precedent to the commencement of the grant of Ceylon citizenship and the process of repatriation.

10. This Agreement shall come into force with effect from the date hereof and the two Governments shall proceed with all dispatch to implement this Agreement and, to that end, the officials of the two Governments shall meet as soon as possible to establish joint machinery and to formulate the appropriate procedure for the implementation of this agreement.