Australian High court rules that 157 Lankan asylum seekers held legally

Australia's highest court on Wednesday narrowly ruled that Australia acted legally when it held 157 Sri Lankan asylum seekers at sea for almost a month last year, the Associated Press reported.

The High Court judges voted 4-3 to reject a claim for damages for false imprisonment by one of the ethnic Tamils held aboard an Australian customs vessel in the Indian Ocean.

The asylum seekers were picked up and held on a Customs boat for nearly a month last June after leaving a port at Pondicherry in southern India.

They were eventually taken to Nauru after efforts to return them to India failed.

Lawyers for the group argued the detention outside Australia was illegal and at odds with international obligations, and their treatment on the Customs boat was inhumane and cruel, a report by Radio New Zealand said.

Asylum seeker advocates were concerned over changes to legislation made late last year that could make it difficult to challenge boat turn-backs and detention at sea in the future.

The changes meant detention powers could not be ruled invalid on the basis of international obligations.