Canadian IDRC Grantee ICES In Sri Lanka Is Sued For Research Fraud

By Muttukrishna Sarvananthan –JANUARY 29, 2019

Dr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan

This author had exposed research fraud allegedly committed by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) on a research study jointly funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada), Department for International Development (DfID, UK), and the Hewlett Foundation (USA) in early 2016 in the Colombo Telegraph.     

The titles and the corresponding web links of these exposes as follows:

1. Mario Gomez, ICES, and IDRC commit Research Fraud in Sri Lanka – (Colombo Telegraph – January 17, 2016)

2. Canadian IDRC continues to fund corrupt ICES in Sri Lanka even after a damning Evaluation Report – (Colombo Telegraph – January 23, 2016)

3. Messiahs of Good Governance at the Helm of Incorrigible ICES in Sri Lanka – (Colombo Telegraph -January 28, 2016)

A number of landmark lawsuits filed by this author and the Point Pedro Institute of Development (PPID) against breach of contract as well as violation of the intellectual property rights by the ICES, Mario Gomez (Executive Director), and Daneshan Casie Chetty (Chairperson) are earnestly due for trial from the beginning of this year, 2019.

The case number bearing DSP 52/16 filed at the District Court of Colombo on May 05, 2016 against the ICES, Dr. Mario Gomez (Executive Director), and Mr. Daneshan Casie Chetty (Chairperson) for breach of contract is due for trial shortly. The objection/s raised by the Counsel for the defendants against the amended plaint submitted on behalf of the plaintiff was rejected by the Honourable Judge in mid-2018. Then the ICES had filed an appeal against this order of the District Court of Colombo at the Western Province High Court of Civil Appeal in September 2018 bearing the case number WP/HCCA/COL/102/2018/LA. The judgement on this appeal was to be delivered on January 22, 2019, but it has been postponed.

The case number bearing HC / Civil / 35 / 2017 (IP) filed at the Commercial High Court of Colombo in November 2017 against the ICES for violation of the intellectual property rights has reached the stage of trial on January 22, 2019 and the next dates of the trial are fixed for May 14 and 16, 2019.

The case number bearing HC / Civil / 13 / 2018 (IP) filed at the Commercial High Court of Colombo in early 2018 against Kethaki Kandanearachchi, Rapti Ratnayake, and the ICES for violation of the intellectual property rights is due for hearing on April 04, 2019.

The case number bearing HC / Civil / 14 / 2018 (IP) filed at the Commercial High Court of Colombo in early 2018 against Dr. Jeevasuthan Subramaniam of the University of Jaffna and the ICES for violation of the intellectual property rights is due for hearing on March 06,2019.

The case number bearing HC / Civil / 15 / 2018 (IP) filed at the Commercial High Court of Colombo in early 2018 against Dr. Iresha Lakshman of the University of Colombo and the ICES for violation of the intellectual property rights is due for hearing on April 04, 2019.

A lawsuit against Dr. Ramani Gunatilaka, Ranmini Vithanagama, and the ICES for violation of the intellectual property rights is due to be filed at the Commercial High Court of Colombo shortly.

As and when the judgements on these cases are delivered, Mario Gomez’s position at the ICES would become untenable. It is because of this inevitability that various delaying/stalling tactics are being employed by the defendants. In order to find out the precarious state of the defendants in these cases, this author publicly invites the staff and the members of the governing board of the ICES to personally attend the hearing/trial/judgement of the aforesaid case/s on the respective dates mentioned above. 

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