The Appeal Court today (Aug 5) ruled that the decision taken by former Northern chief minister C. V. Vigneswaran to remove former Northern provincial minister B. Deniwaran was unconstitutional.
The two-member judge bench comprising Justices Mahinda Samayawardena and Priyantha Fernando claimed that a chief minister does not have the authority to remove such individuals from office.
Court ruled that only the governor of a province has been vested with the authority to sack a provincial minister from office.
Deniswaran had filed a contempt of court case against Mr. Vigneswaran and two other provincial ministers by stating that they had failed to carry out an Appeal court order instructing to re-appoint him to office.
He had been removed from office as the Provincial Minister of Transport and Fisheries before the ministerial portfolios were handed over to provincial councillors Ananda Shashidaran and K. Sivanesan.
Shashidaran and Sivanesan were the other respondents in the case.
The Department of National Zoological Gardens is readying enclosures to quarantine two large tortoises that were found stranded 15 kilometers westwards off Pitipana Negombo, today.
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