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SC orders PS to remove boards changing name of village
The Supreme Court this week ordered a local council in Jaffna to remove name boards of a village after residents claimed that the name would represent one caste only and thus create disharmony. The directive was issued to the Valikamam West Pradeshiya Sabha, in the Vaddukoddai electorate after 10 villagers filed a fundamental rights petition.
The original name of the village as seen in the sub post office name board
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA)-controlled local council members were among the respondents.
The local council had put up boards with the name ‘Sinthupura’ which replaced the original name of ‘Sivankovilady’.
The petitioners said that persons belonging to various castes such as ‘Assampadier’, ‘Vellalar’, ‘Acharya’, ‘Mukkuvar’, ‘Nallavar’ and so on live in the village and if part of the same village was named ‘Sinthupuram’ it would represent only the ‘Thimilar’ caste which corresponds to the Indian caste of ‘Sindunadar’.
The petitioners also said that the world ‘Sinthu’ also means to scatter, to split, to remove, to destroy, all denoting an inauspicious meaning.
The petitioners said in 2005 a group of people supposed to be supporters of the LTTE changed the name board of a market to ‘Sinthupuram public market’ and in 2009 the place was renamed as ‘Sinthupuram common market’.
They said the Regional Assistant Commissioner of Local Government was informed in 2011 about the attempt to change the name and that certain societies had already changed their addresses accordingly on their name boards.
The petitioners state that Vaddukoddai West comprises several villages and the village where they were born was known and called as ‘Sivankovilady’ from time immemorial.
The controversial new name board
The petitioners said that the respondent Pradeshiya Sabha members has had several meetings and decided to change the original name ‘Sivankovilady’ to ‘Sinthupuram’ which will cause disharmony if the aforementioned name boards continue to remain due to the inaction of the relevant authorities.
The petitioners state that the change is unlawful, arbitrary and is of no avail or consequence in law and also affecting their fundamental rights.
The Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices S. Marsoof, K Sripavan and I. Imam ordered the PS to remove the name boards under their purview with immediate effect.
Attorneys Shyamal Collure instructed by Chandrasiri Wijesinghe appeared for the petitioners. Deputy Solicitor Generla Indika Demuni de Silva appeared for the Attorney General.
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