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Valikamam residents’FR cases against Army to be heard on Aug. 7
View(s):Six fundamental rights petitions of 160 petitioners filed in the Supreme Court challenging the alleged unlawful occupation by the Sri Lanka Army of 6,381 acres of land belonging to the residents of Valikamam North Division in the Jaffna peninsula were listed for hearing on August 7. The petitioners cited Lands and Land Development Minister Janaka Bandara Tennekoon, Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe, Jaffna land acquisition officer A. Sivasamy and the Attorney General as respondents.
The petitioners in their application claimed that they were in occupation of their lands for the past 23 years and had to vacate their places of residence due to the conflict between the LTTE and the Government. They also stated that they were not informed in writing that their lands were to be acquired by the Army for the construction of Battalion Headquarters. They came to know only through posters hung on the fence that was erected to enclose the barricaded area. The petitioners further said that there were various business ventures operated by the Army within the area demarcated for occupation.
They claim that the unlawful occupation violated their fundamental rights under Article 12 of the Constitution. Additional Solicitor General Shavindra Fernando informed Court that there was an ongoing process in operation at the moment with regard to the lands in question and he would appreciate if the petitioners could change the caption by including the Land Commissioner as a respondent as this would enable him to expedite the process and evaluate the claims made by the petitioners.
The Supreme Court Bench comprising Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, Eva Wanasundara and Rohini Marasinghe then instructed the petitioners to change the caption and issue notice only to the Land Commisioner and listed the petitions to be heard on August 7. Shantha Akmannasingham PC with Jude Dinesh and V Manivannan instructed by V Thirukkumaran appeared for the petitioners.