(1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Repatriates (Bar of Proceedings) Act, 1969.

(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Tamil Nadu.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,

(1) debt means any liability, whether secured or unsecured, incurred in a foreign country by a repatriate, whether payable under a contract or decree or an order of a court, civil or revenue or otherwise;

(2) foreign country means Burma or Ceylon or such other foreign country as the State Government may, by notification, specify, in this behalf;

(3) repatriate means a person of Indian origin who was ordinarily residing in a foreign country, and who, on leaving or being forced to leave, such foreign country,

(a) has returned to India with the intention of permanently residing therein,

(b) is ordinarily residing in the State of Tamil Nadu, and

(c) is unable or has been rendered unable to

(i) occupy, supervise, manage or control his I property, if any, in such foreign country, or

(ii) exercise any profession of calling or to transact any business or to carry on any trade or to hold any appointment in such foreign country.

Explanation. A person shall be deemed to be of Indian origin if he, or either of his parents, or any of his grand-parents or any of his other ancestors or ancestresses, was born in undivided India.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any law, custom or contract,

(a) no suit for recovery of a debt shall be instituted, and no application for execution of a decree for debt shall be made against any repatriate in any civil or revenue court, on or after the date of the commencement of this Act, and

(b) every suit for recovery of a debt instituted, and every application for execution of a decree for debt made against any repatriate, pending before any civil or revenue court on the date of the commencement of this Act, shall abate.

1. Received the assent of the President on the 29th October, 1969, first published in the Fort St. George Gazette Extraordinary on the 1st November, 1969 (Kartika 10, 1891)

2. For Statement of Objects and Reasons, see Fort St. George Gazette Extraordinary, dated the 20th August, 1969, Part TV Section 3, page 120.