Sri Lanka Court unseats two government ministers

Colombo, Aug 9 (PTI) Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Friday upheld an opposition petition to unseat two defectors, who had become ministers in President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s cabinet in 2022.

Tourism Minister Harin Fernando and Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkkara were expelled by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) when they defected to Wickremesinghe in July 2022. They had filed two separate expulsion petitions challenging the SJB decision to remove them from their party membership.

The Supreme Court upheld the decision by the SJB to expel both from the party membership and declared the action (by the SJB) to be both legal and correct, news portal NewsFirst.lk said.

Simultaneously, the court dismissed the petitions filed by the two ministers, which contended that the SJB's move to revoke their party membership was unlawful, it added.

As a result of the Supreme Court judgment, both Fernando and Nanayakkara will lose their parliamentary seats and ministerial portfolios.

In mid-April 2022, the island nation declared its first-ever sovereign default since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. Amid unprecedented unrest following spiralling inflation, the people revolted against the government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Following Gotabaya’s ouster in July 2022, Wickremesinghe stepped in.

Fernando and Nanayakkara both having failed to persuade their own party to take over the government during the public upheaval joined Wickremesinghe, and were the only opposition legislators to respond to their former leader’s call to jointly handle the worsening economic crisis.

The SJB is an offshoot of the United National Party (UNP), the grand old party of the country headed by Wickremesinghe. He has declared to fight the September 21 presidential polls as an independent.

The court order would now permit the SJB to appoint replacements in place of Fernando and Nanayakkara.

Fernando stepped down soon after the court decision. This leaves three vacancies in the cabinet now with last week’s resignation of Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, who did so to contest the September 21 presidential election. PTI CORR NPK NPK NPK