News
SC instructs contempt charges be filed against Immigration Chief
View(s):By Namini Wijedasa
The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday instructed contempt of court charges to be filed against the Controller General (CG) of Immigration and Emigration for not obeying its August 2 order to restore the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) system that operated before April 16.
Justices P Padman Surasena (presiding), Kumudini Wickremasinghe and Achala Wengappuli also ordered CG Harsha Illukpitiya to present himself in court at the next date, September 25. While he was summoned to court on Friday, the Attorney General’s (AG) Department informed the bench that Mr Illukpitiya was abroad and would return on September 21.
The Sunday Times exclusively reported last week that the CG and a Deputy Controller General were in Poland on a factory visit to inspect the production of a machine-readable passport (MRPs) hastily ordered to tide over the “emergency” created by a bungled ePassport tender.
Public Security Minister Tiran Alles denied this at subsequent a press conference, calling it “blatant lies.” However, when the bench ordered Mr Illukpitiya to come to Court on Friday, they were informed he was overseas.
The Department of Immigration and Emigration last year signed a 12-year outsourcing contract to process online visas with a joint venture comprising the Singapore-registered GBS Technology Services, the UAE-registered IVS Global-FZCO and the Dubai-headquartered VFS VF Worldwide Holdings Ltd.
Eight petitions were subsequently filed against the “VFS deal,” including by opposition MPs Patali Champika Ranawaka, M A Sumanthiran PC, and Rauff Hakeem. All had received leave to proceed. But VFS at the time admitted to having received notice only in respect of the three MPs’ petitions.
Acting on these, the SC on August 2 suspended the implementation of the contract and restrained the respondents and their servants from taking any further steps on the agreement. Additionally, the relevant respondents were directed to revert to the status quo ante (previously existing state of affairs) as of April 16 this year, before the new VFS system kicked into place.
But the department only partly complied with the SC order, suspending the VFS mechanism but not reverting to the ETA operated by SLTMobitel before April 16. On Friday, the SC took up a motion filed by the AG in mid-August on behalf of the first respondent, the CG, citing reasons for why the status quo ante could not be restored.
Additional Solicitor General Viveka Siriwardena, PC, said new regulations were gazetted introducing more categories of visas and that the old ETA system did not cater to these changes. Practically, too, it was not possible to revert as SLTMobitel operated an ETA mechanism while VFS issued e-visas.
The three MPs led by Mr Sumanthiran submitted to the court that, by his own admission and in terms of the motion he presented, the CG had acknowledged he could not or would not comply with the SC order to restore the old ETA mechanism. This was enough to find him in contempt of court, they said.
Mr Sumanthiran also pointed out that SLTMobitel had twice written to the CG saying they could reactivate their system in 24 hours, provided the back-end and the international payment gateway were reactivated. Counsel for SLTMobitel Uditha Egalahewa, PC, told court the CG hadn’t responded to either of these letters.
The SC then asked the AG’s Department to inform the CG that he must immediately come to court, at which point the bench was informed he was overseas. The Deputy Controller (IT) Indika Herath and Acting CG were then summoned.
On being questioned by court, Mr Herath said the CG gave him no instructions on giving effect to the relevant SC order. He also said the CG maintained he would give him directions after he received advice from the AG but never did.
The bench then decided there was a prima facie case of contempt, and that this evidence should be recorded formally, under oath. The petitioners moved that the CG should be charged with contempt, reinforcing the view that the court could do so even on the material available.
The SC then decided the CG should be charged with contempt and directed the petitioners to tender draft charges to be considered by the court on September 25, on which date the CG was asked to be present.
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