The Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated (withdrew) all the interim orders issued in the controversial oil hedging cases and terminated the case since the government had failed to comply with earlier court orders.
The interim orders relate to the suspension of Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) Chairman Asantha de Mel, CPC Deputy General Manager (Finance) Lalith Karunaratne, the CPC foreign exchange payments due to five commercial banks and fuel pricing.
The Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, Justices Shiranee Tilakawardane and K. Sripavan terminated all proceedings against the oil hedging deal, reverting the status to the earlier position. The Chief Justice said that all interim orders issued in this matter would be vacated if the state has not complied with the interim order directing the authorities to bring down the petrol price to Rs.100 for the benefit of the masses. He added that there was no indication as to whether the executive was willing to comply with the oil pricing formula agreed upon by the court considering the suggestion made by the Secretary to the Finance Ministry.
Chief Justice Silva ruled that any decision made by the court on a fundamental rights application must be complied with – in terms of the constitution - by the Executive and then make any complaints if it cannot implement it.
He added that the court had given one months-time to the Secretary of the Finance Ministry to show cause as to why it cannot bring down petrol prices to Rs.100 in accordance with the court ruling. But not a single written submission has been filed so far following the court order.
He noted that, the executive had not complied with the interim order and that no papers had been filed by the Treasury Secretary and the chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation on the basis of the said interim order on the reduction in the price of petrol even after one month of the earlier order .
The Chief Justice made these comments when the Deputy Solicitor General Sanjaya Rajaratnam told court that the Executive is considering the Supreme Court order and a fresh fuel pricing formula is to be worked out to bring down the price of petrol.
He appealed to court to grant two weeks time for this purpose as there was a possibility in the reduction of the price of petrol. He said that there was a substantial compliance with the court order as the government has already given a relief package for the people by reducing the price of diesel and kerosene. The Supreme Court rejected the request and vacated all interim orders issued against the hedging deal.
The decision to end the cases will impact on a number of issues including whether Mr De Mel and Mr Karunaratne, who both resigned, will be reinstated as their positions have been temporarily filled. On the issue of the CPC payments to five banks – Standard Chartered, Citi, Commercial, Deutsche and People’s -, the Central Bank has separately launched an investigation under the Monetary Board Act into the hedging contracts, found that the banks had violated rules in these contracts and ordered the five banks not to proceed with the contracts.
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