{"id":62018,"date":"2018-12-04T00:03:51","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T04:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=62018"},"modified":"2018-12-04T00:03:51","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T04:03:51","slug":"sri-lankas-court-of-appeal-temporarily-restrains-controversially-appointed-mahinda-rajapaksa-and-his-purported-cabinet-from-functioning-as-prime-minister-and-ministers-respectively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=62018","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Court of Appeal Temporarily Restrains Controversially Appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa and His Purported Cabinet from Functioning as Prime Minister and Ministers Respectively."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Rajapaksa plans to move the Supreme Court against the order.
\nSri Lanka\u2019s Court of Appeal on Monday temporarily restrained controversially installed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his purported Cabinet of Ministers from functioning in their respective offices.<\/p>\n

The interim order follows a quo warranto petition filed by 122 MPs on November 23, challenging Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s continuance in office, after losing two trust votes in Parliament on November 14 and 16.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rajapaksa has decided to appeal in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, as he is \u201cnot in agreement with the interim order.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018On whose authority?\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The appeal court has asked the former President and his Ministers to explain, on whose authority they continued in office despite the legislature voting them out twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe damage that may be caused by temporarily restraining a lawful Cabinet from functioning would in all probability be outweighed by the damage caused by allowing a set of persons not entitled in law to function as Prime Ministers or Ministers,\u201d observed Justice Preethi Padman Surasena.<\/p>\n

Over the last month, Mr. Rajapaksa and his team of \u2018Ministers\u2019 have taken key decisions on commodity pricing and have signed foreign deals.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s Court of Appeal restrains Mahinda Rajapaksa from functioning as PM
\n
\n\u2018Breach of procedure\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Rajapaksa and President Maithripala Sirisena, who appointed him in place of incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in a widely criticised move, are yet to recognise the outcome of the votes in Parliament, citing \u201cbreach of procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n

MPs opposed to Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s appointment have shown a majority in the House as many as six times in the last three weeks.<\/p>\n

While their manoeuvre in the legislature proved inadequate to oust Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s disputed government, Monday\u2019s appeal court order delivered a legal blow to the legitimacy that the Rajapaksa camp claims.<\/p>\n

The interim order is the second major setback for President Sirisena since October 26, the day he abruptly replaced Mr. Wickremesinghe with Mr. Rajapaksa. On November 13, the Supreme Court stayed Mr. Sirisena’s dissolution of Parliament and restrained the Election Commission from preparing for snap polls. Hearing on the case resumes on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

However, Mr. Sirisena is unwilling to back down from his earlier refusal to work with Mr. Wickremesinghe, despite his front unanimously nominating him for the post of Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meeting was inconclusive,\u201d MP and All Ceylon Makkal Congress Rishad Bathiudeen told The Hindu. \u201cThe President told us he is yet to see the full text of today\u2019s [Monday\u2019s] interim order and that he would take a call on it tomorrow,\u201d he said, minutes after a delegation \u2014 of leaders representing Mr. Wickremesinghe\u2019s front \u2014 met Mr. Sirisena.<\/p>\n

Political prisoners
\nMeanwhile, in a meeting with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) legislators earlier on Monday, President Sirisena had reportedly observed there was \u201cno Prime Minister or government in the country\u201d, in the wake of the appeal court order. He assured he would take \u201cnecessary action within 24 hours\u201d, according to TNA MP Dharmalingam Sithadthan, who attended the meeting.<\/p>\n

The meeting had been scheduled for a discussion on the possible release of political prisoners held under Sri Lanka\u2019s draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act. \u201cOfficials from the Attorney General\u2019s department went through a list of political prisoners and the status of their cases. Mr. Sampanthan urged the President not to take a purely legalistic view of the matter as it was a political issue,\u201d TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran said.
\n
\nCourtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Mr. Rajapaksa plans to move the Supreme Court against the order. Sri Lanka\u2019s Court of Appeal on Monday temporarily restrained controversially installed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his purported Cabinet of Ministers from functioning in their respective offices. The interim order follows a quo warranto petition filed by 122 MPs on November …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka\u2019s Court of Appeal Temporarily Restrains Controversially Appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa and His Purported Cabinet from Functioning as Prime Minister and Ministers Respectively.’ »<\/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\/62018"}],"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=62018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62019,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62018\/revisions\/62019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}