Fuller bench of SC issues notice on new Chairman and members of Election Commission

FR petitions against failure to hold elections

By AJA Abeynayake

The Supreme Court yesterday ordered that notices be issued on the new Chairman and the members of the Election Commission to appear before the court.

The order was given by a five-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya and Justices Priyantha Jayawardena, Vijith Malalgoda, Murdu Fernando and Gamini Amarasekara, when the petitions said the fundamental human rights of the people had been violated by the failure to hold the 2023 Local Government (LG) elections on 09 March 2023.

The petitions were filed by the NPP-led JVP, SJB, the Centre for Policy Alternatives and the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), naming the Chairman and the members of the Election Commission as respondents.

President’s Counsel Nigel Hatch, who appeared on behalf of the NPP-led JVP, requested the court for an early date for hearing of the petition since the fundamental human rights of the people had been violated by the postponement of the election.

The Chief Justice mentioned that although the hearing of the relevant petitions had been scheduled to be held yesterday, it was not possible to carry out the hearing due to the fact that the petitioners had not properly issued notice to the respondents.

Accordingly, the court ordered the petitioning party to issue notices to the new members of the Election Commission and former members of the Commission P. S. M. Charles, who were added to the list of respondents of the petitions, within a period of one week.

Later, the relevant petitions were ordered to be recalled for hearing on 21, 22, 29, 30 Nov. and 01 Dec., 01, 2023.