Sri Lanka Court suspends de facto Prime Minister and Cabinet

The petition will be heard before the Court of Appeal on December 12 and 13

 Rajapaksa and Cabinet have been notified to appear before the Court 

Read Full Text of the Order 

( December 3, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Court of Appeal in Sri Lanka issuing a verdict this afternoon has decided to issue an interim injunction on the quo warranto petition filed against the de facto Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his cabinet installed by President Maithripala Sirisena in a constitutional coup.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed as the de-facto Prime Minister by President Sirisena by sacking Siting Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on October 26, 2018. Subsequently, the new cabinet of ministers sworn in before the President.

The interim relief was granted after the court had considered submissions presented by both parties in the case. While issuing the verdict, the court had said that irreversible damage could be caused if unentitled individuals occupy the positions of Prime Minister and cabinet ministers.

The interim order would mean that Rajapaksa and his cabinet of ministers will not be entitled to serve in their positions of Prime Minister and cabinet ministers until a final order is issued by the courts.

Accordingly, the petition will be heard before the Court of Appeal on December 12 and 13.

During the hearing today, the President’s counsel’s Kushan D’Alwis & Ali Sabry appearing on behalf of the respondents had continued to raise technical objections regarding the validity of the Hansard.

The petition was filed by United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe including 122 MPs of the UNP, JVP, TNA and SLMC while former President Rajapaksa and 48 others were cited as respondents in the case.

The case is being heard before a two-member trial-at bar comprising Appellate court President Justice Preethi Padman Surasena and Justice Arjuna Obeysekara.

Here is the full text of the order;

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