When the petition against the ‘National List appointments‘ was taken before a Supreme Court bench the respondents had dodged the hearing, claiming that they have not received the Supreme Court’s determination on 14th amendment filed in Court by the Petitioner.
DEW
The bench had comprise Chief Justice K. Sripavan, Justice Eva Wanasundara and Justice Sisira de Abrew,.
Earlier a petition was filed at the Supreme Court requesting to revoke the appointments of the UPFA MPs who got elected to the Parliament through the National List’.
The petition was filed by Secretary of the Communist Party DEW Gunasekara.
The respondents for the case include the Election Commissioner, General Secretary of the UPFA and 42 others.
The petitioner argued that the UPFA’s decision to include the candidates who were defeated at the General Election 2015 was against the law and it is against the sovereignty of the people.
When the case was taken today the Petitioner’s Counsel Nagananda Kodituwakku informed Court that in 1988 five Judges in the Supreme Court had determined that appointing of rejected candidates by the political party Secretaries as elected MPs would amount to a violation of people’s sovereign right to elect political representatives of their choice.
However, the Counsels appearing for rejected candidates who were elected as MPs informed Court that they have not received the said determination of the Supreme Court referred to by the Petitioner’s Counsel.
As a result the Court declined to hear the case yesterday. However as the Counsel for the Petitioner informed the Court that those refused by the people are unlawfully occupying office of MPs in the Parliament, the Court determined that the case could be heard by a Full Bench on 07th Oct 2015.
