{"id":55561,"date":"2017-09-30T01:12:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-30T05:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55561"},"modified":"2017-09-30T01:12:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-30T05:12:18","slug":"petition-seeking-re-instatement-of-mahinda-rajapaksa-as-slfp-head-dismissed-by-courts-as-petitioners-had-no-legal-right-to-pursue-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55561","title":{"rendered":"Petition Seeking Re-instatement of Mahinda Rajapaksa as SLFP Head Dismissed by Courts as Petitioners Had no Legal Right to  Pursue Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By A.J.A. Abeynayake<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Colombo District Judge Sujeewa Nissanka yesterday rejected a petition seeking to reinstate former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).<\/p>\n<p>The judge decided to reject the case after the preliminary objections that the petitioners had no legal right to continue with the case.<\/p>\n<p>The petition was filed by former Chairman of the Boralesgamuwa Urban Council Aruna Priyashantha and former Urban Councillor Asanka Priyanath. It named former General Secretary of the SLFP Aruna Priyadarshana Yapa and current General Secretary of the party Duminda Dissanayake and the Elections Commissioner as respondents<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The petitioners had requested the court to declare null and void a statement issued by the former General Secretary of the SLFP Anura Priyadarshana Yapa appointing incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena to the post of President of the SLFP.<\/p>\n<p>The petitioners argued that only a candidate who contested the Presidential Election on the SLFP ticket could  hold the position of party president. They stated that the SLFP Working Committee had unanimously cancelled Sirisena\u2019s party membership after he had decided to contest the presidential elections from a different party.<\/p>\n<p>SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake and the former General Secretary, who are named as respondents in the case, filing preliminary objections stated that the case could not be heard as the President, also named as a respondent, was immune from civil lawsuits.<\/p>\n<p>Chandika Jayasundara PC and Attorney at Law Pulasthi Rupasinghe appeared for the respondents while Attorney at Law Nimal Weerakkody appeared for the petitioners.<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:The Island<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton55561\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D55561&amp;text=Petition%20Seeking%20Re-instatement%20of%20Mahinda%20Rajapaksa%20as%20SLFP%20Head%20Dismissed%20by%20Courts%20as%20Petitioners%20Had%20no...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By A.J.A. Abeynayake Colombo District Judge Sujeewa Nissanka yesterday rejected a petition seeking to reinstate former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The judge decided to reject the case after the preliminary objections that the petitioners had no legal right to continue with the case. The petition was &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55561\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Petition Seeking Re-instatement of Mahinda Rajapaksa as SLFP Head Dismissed by Courts as Petitioners Had no Legal Right to  Pursue Case&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55562,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55561\/revisions\/55562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}