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Police officers win SC relief; commended for upholding rule of law
View(s):The Supreme Court has ordered two former top police officials to pay Rs 1 million each in equal share to two of their junior colleagues who in their fundamental rights petitions had alleged they were subjected to arbitrary disciplinary action after they refused to obey illegal instructions during the Presidential polls period in 2010.
The two petitioners, the then Headquarters Inspector M.S.K.Wickramanayake and the then Kurunegala police station Officer-in-Charge D.C.P.Kumarasinghe, in their FR petitions alleged that they were subjected to arbitrary transfer and disciplinary action for not obeying orders from superior officials. This was when they arrested three Navy personnel while they were transporting election propaganda material in a lorry two days before the Presidential polls in 2010.
The then Inspector General of Police Mahinda Balasooriya and the then Senior Superintendent Vaas Gunawardena were ordered to pay compensation to two police officers after the court found that there is no doubt that they had undergone a difficult time for merely upholding the rule of law.
Commending the forthrightness of the petitioners even in the face of adverse circumstances, the three-member bench consisting of Justices Prasanna Jayawardena, Vijith K. Malalgoda and P. Padman Surasena held that the “transfers of the petitioners, subsequent preferring of charge sheets against them and conducting disciplinary proceedings against the petitioners are all ab initio void and hence are hereby declared null and void.”
Noting that the petitioners had continued to be in service in the ranks they were respectively holding at the time of this incident without a break in service, the Court directed that they would be entitled to all the arrears of their salaries, allowances and benefits, which their colleagues would have received during that period in terms of salary, increments and promotions.
The Court also directed the IGP and the National Police Commission to take suitable steps to redress any disadvantage, which may have accrued to the petitioners regarding their promotions due to their being unlawfully subjected to disciplinary proceedings relating to this incident.
J C Weliamuna PC with Pulasthi Hewamanna and Thilini Vidanagamage represented the petitioners while Deputy Solicitor General Viveka Siriwardena appeared for the Attorney General.