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Local council election case: Ruling on intervenient petitions on Wednesday
View(s):Several civil society groups and election watchdogs have filed intervenient petitions in the Court of Appeal, raising objections to a writ petition, which, they say, is a move to postpone the local council elections.
The writ petition was filed by six former local council members. They called on the Court of Appeal to issue an order nullifying the Gazette notification on the delimitation of local council divisions and the number of members in each council.
The intervenient petitioners are the United National Party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), the Pothujana Peramuna and the Eksath Jathika Nidhahas Peramuna.
The intervenient petitioners sought recognition as respondents along with the Provincial Council and Local Government Minister and the Ministry Secretary.
A three-judge bench comprising Court of Appeal President L. Dehideniya, and Justices Shiran Gunaratne and Kumudini Wickramasinghe took up the case. The court will issue a ruling on the intervenient petitions on November 22.
The petitioners who filed the writ application claimed that the Extraordinary Gazette notification was issued without taking into consideration the recommendations made by the sub-committee appointed to oversee the demarcation process. Therefore, the court should declare it as void.
The petitioners were former local council members from Colombo, Kandy, Hali-Ela, Matara and Embilipitiya.
When the petition was taken up on Thursday, Deputy Solicitor General Arjuna Obeysekera raised preliminary objections, questioning the legal basis on which the writ application was filed. He said the petitioners had no locus standi.
The Gazette in question was issued by the Minister after the National Delimitation Committee issued its report.
The Deputy Solicitor General argued that the petition had been filed nine months after the Gazette was published in February and therefore the petitioners had no right or ability to bring a legal action to a court of law.
He also brought to the court’s notice that the petitioners had failed to name other necessary parties such as the Election Commission as respondents.
The petitioners argued that the minister made changes to the number of members in each council, though he was not empowered to do so, and therefore the Gazette should be declared as void.
They complained that several wards in the Colombo and Kandy Municipal Councils and the Kotapola, Panduwasnuwara, HaliEla and Embilipitiya Pradeshiya Sabhas were designated as multi- member wards and some of the multi-member wards were madesingle member wards.