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BASL gets tough with Mayor and CMC
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has issued an ultimatum on Friday to the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) that if the Council does not take measures to remove election campaign hoardings in the City by Monday, it will be compelled to take legal action against the Mayor and the Municipal Commissioner.
Earlier the BASL sent a letter to Colombo Mayor A.J.M.Muzamil demanding the removal of illegal hoardings put up in the municipal premises.
BASL President Upul Jayasuriya said that the executive committee of the association has decided to take legal action not only against the Mayor but also against ministry secretaries and officials who will be charged for failing to ensure the rule of law in the country.
“The Elections Commissioner has addressed this issue but no action has been taken to remove all the hoardings. We appreciate that steps are being taken to remove some of them, but if all of them are not removed completely we have to go to court with the help of the Attorney General’s Department,” he said.
Commenting on a ceremony held to hand over to about 2,000 people from the North their jewellery which was deposited in LTTE banks, Mr. Jayasuriya said the act was illegal and deliberately done without the intervention of the courts, in view of the Presidential election.
Around 2,000 persons were brought from Jaffna to Temple Trees on Thursday for a ceremony where President Mahinda Rajapaksa handed over the jewellery parcels to the rightful owners.
President Rajapaksa said he instructed the authorities to find the rightful owners of the jewellery and hand the items back.
The usual law should have been followed when the military found this amount of jewellery in the former conflict area. It should have been taken into custody and submitted to courts. The identification process had to be done through courts.
In whose custody had the jewellery remained during the five years since it was recovered? Mr. Jayasuriya questioned.