The fundamental rights applications filed over the controversial oil hedging transactions was heard in the Supreme Court on Thursday where the 3-judge bench comprising Justices Shiranee Tilakawardane, G. Amaratunga and S.I. Imam, fixed both applications for support of leave to proceed and for granting interim relief for March 22.
The petitions were originally filed in May 2009 by former PERC Chairman Nihal Sri Ameresekere who submitted that the hedging agreements, entered into between the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and five banks including three international banks, amounted to wagering and were illegal. The banks include Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Commercial Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank.
Mr. Ameresekere urged the Attorney General to disclose to the Court the legal costs so far incurred by the state in defending two foreign arbitrations and a court action instigated by Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank and Deutsche Bank. According to Mr.Ameresekere’s application, he is seeking anti-suit injunctions and he has included the principal place of the transactions as Sri Lanka.
The Court also permitted amendments to Mr. Ameresekere’s petition in application No. 481/2009 as requested by the petitioner through his submissions and a note tendered to the Court. Mr. Ameresekere submitted that these amendments were important and included pertinent facts disclosed by affidavits and statements to the Court by the respondents. He added that the public officers concerned had admitted themselves that they had been provided with foreign travel and on certain occasions with their families, by all three respondent foreign banks, Standard Chartered, Citibank and Deutsche Bank. He also stated that he had tendered international oil price movements up to October 2009 since some of the 12-month hedging transactions ended only in October 2009.
Based on the petitioner’s submissions, the Court directed that Secretary to the Treasury P.B. Jayasundera be substituted as the 2nd respondent in both applications and that the Central Bank’s Director of Bank Supervision T.M.J.Y.P. Fernando be substituted as the 8th respondent in application No. 481/2009. Controller of Exchange P.H.O. Chandrawansa was substituted as the 8th respondent in application No. 404/2009.
The respondents were granted two weeks time to file limited objections to the grant of interim reliefs sought and on the documents placed before Court by Mr. Ameresekere. The petitioner was granted two weeks time to file counter affidavits. The respondent banks reserved their right to object to Mr. Ameresekere’s applications on the issue of being out of time with Mr. Ameresekere countering that these transactions went on up to October 2009.
Attorney General Mohan Peiris with Deputy Solicitor General, Sanjaya Rajaratnam, Senior State Counsel, Janak De Silva, and Milinda Gunatileke appeared for the CPC and Secretary to the Treasury. Attorney at Law Sanjeewa Jayawardena appeared for Standard Chartered Bank, Attorney at Law Avindra Rodrigo for Citibank, Faisz Musthapa, PC for Deutsche Bank, Romesh de Silva, PC for Commercial Bank, S.A. Parathalingam, PC for People’s Bank and Dr. Harsha Cabral, PC for the Controller of Exchange and Director of Bank Supervision. |
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