New Delhi, Aug. 7: ADMK chief Jayalalithaa today approached the Supreme Court seeking revocation of a 1974 treaty by which India ceded the small, uninhabited island of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.

Her petition cited the “untold hardship, prejudice and injury” caused to Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lankan military patrols in Katchatheevu’s neighbourhood, a hotbed of LTTE activities.

The 285-acre island off Tamil Nadu’s Rameswaram coast was handed over through the Sirimavo Bandaranaike-Indira Gandhi agreement of June 26, 1974. A second treaty, signed on March 23, 1976, demarcated the maritime boundary between the two nations.

Jayalalithaa has urged the apex court to repudiate both accords on the ground that they were executive acts that were never ratified by Parliament as promised.

Legal sources said that if the court found the treaties unconstitutional, it would still be difficult for India to unilaterally scrap the international accords. So, Delhi may have to talk to Colombo and find a way to stop harassment of fishermen, who are often shot at or arrested by the Lankan military.

“Due to the hostile attitude of the Lankan navy, the fishermen of Tamil Nadu fear to go fishing. They also have no other… livelihood. Thus (their) fundamental rights… have been gravely affected,” the petition said.

Jayalalithaa claimed that four fishermen had died, three had gone missing and one had been injured when they strayed into Lankan waters this year. She said Lankan forces had tortured 1,600 fishermen on July 2 and seized their boats.

The petition urged the court to take steps to retrieve Katchatheevu, or to get India’s fishermen the right to fish in and around it and ensure their protection through Indian patrolling and other measures.

Jayalalithaa argued that the island had always been a part of India geographically, historically and culturally. It belonged to the zamindari of the Raja of Ramnad and Sri Lanka first staked a claim on it in 1921, her petition said.

The 1974 agreement recognised Indian fishermen’s right to fish in the area, the petition said. But the 1976 treaty “undermined and whittled down whatever little… was left of the access/right retained for Indian fishermen in and around Katchatheevu”.

That agreement allowed Indian fishermen to fish only till five nautical miles within Lankan waters but told them they could dry their nets in Katchatheevu. “Therefore, only by reason of signing of the agreement, Indian fishermen are being… denied their traditional right to fish around Katchatheevu,” Jayalalithaa said.

She alleged that the Centre had been sitting on several representations to take the island on lease in perpetuity from Lanka for fishing, drying nets and pilgrimage (the island has an old and now abandoned Catholic church).

After a slew of Lankan assaults on fishermen last month, the Prime Minister broached the subject with his Sri Lankan counterpart during the Saarc summit.