Summons on Prof. Hoole, three others for contempt of court

The Colombo High Court issued summons on Elections Commission member Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole and three others for contempt of Court for allegedly publishing a distorted version of a court interim order.

Senior Counsel N.R.Sivendran appearing with Danushan Ganeshayogan, Anusha Raman and Achini Ranasinghe instructed by K. Ganeshayogan for seven respondents, said the court had only restrained the petitioners in this application from giving effect to the board meeting and preventing them from obstructing the official functions of the Principal of Bauldeus Theological College Trincomalee.

However, he said the first Petitioner Prof. Hoole who is the Managing Director and Chief Editor of a news letter called 'Direction' had published in the paper that the petitioners in this application had been prevented from claiming to be board members of Baldeus Theological College Ltd, Trincomalee. He said they had misinterpreted the official court order.

The Counsel said first petitioner-respondent Dr. Sam Thevabalasingham and third respondent Selvaraja Jeyaraj had misquoted Court order and published a distorted version of it.

The Counsel said that Prof. Hoole and his wife who is the Principal of the school had written to the banks and other persons about the court order which had been distorted by them.

The Counsel alleged that the respondents had diabolically lied and misrepresented court orders which amounted to contempt of Court.

The Counsel moved Court to issue summons on Dr. Sam Thevabalasingham, Prof. S.R. Hoole, George S. David and Prof. Dushanthi Hoole to face contempt charges.

High Court Judge D.H.F. Gunawardena considering the submissions and perusing the material placed before him in support of the petition, issued summons on the respondents ordering them to appear before court on July 23. (T. Farook Thajudeen)