Supreme Court censures CEB

By Teles Anandappa

The Supreme Court took the Ceylon Electricity Board to task for violating a court order relating to a customer complaint concerning the unlawful disconnection of a power supply. The petitioner Citialert (Pvt) Ltd of Colombo 14 cited the Ceylon Electricity Board, area engineer CEB, P. H. D. Zoysa, vice-chairman CEB, K. A. Perera, working director B. A. Galawatte, board members J. P. Hettiarachi, Senaka Sarathchandra, Cassian Herath and Lalith R. de Silva and CEB General Manager R Pulleperuma as respondents.

In the case filed for unlawful disconnection of the power supply to the part of the premises occupied by the petitioner, the Supreme Court on March 11 issued an interim order ordering the Ceylon Electricity Board resume the power supply with immediate effect. When the case was taken up, the petitioner said the Electricity Board had deliberately violated the interim order, which amounted to contempt of court. The petitioner said that so far, up to that day, the power supply had not been restored as ordered. The area manager informed court that the electricity supply would be restored during the course of the day.

Justice Shiranee Thilakawardene said the violation of a court order amounted to contempt of court, and that the respondents should consider this as a ‘last warning’. The CEB board was told by court to ‘first comply with the order, then complain.’ President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva, instructed by G. G. Arulpragasam, appeared for the petitioner.