TNA to study SC judgement before taking decisIon

28 September 2013 01:58 pm

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan said the party would ‘carefully study the Supreme Court judgement’ on the issue of land and the powers of Provincial Councils pertaining to land, before deciding on the next course of action.

 “The judgment of the Supreme Court does not appear to be in conformity with the judgements delivered earlier by the Supreme Court over a period of time,” he told Daily Mirror Online.

Speaking on the issue, Mr. Sampanthan said land has been a moot point of the conflict since Sri Lanka gained independence.

 “Land has been a controversial issue of the country ever since independence and it has been one of the primary causes of the conflict, The Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam pact and the Dudley- Chelvanayagam pact were primarily intended towards  addressing  the issue of state land in such a manner so as to ensure that the demographic composition of the Tamil speaking Northern and Eastern Provinces would not be altered through the instrumentality of the alienation of state land,” he said.

Speaking further he said the Indo- Lanka pact had accepted the principle of devolution.

 “The Indo-Lanka agreement of 1987 and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution has broadly accepted this principle. There are clear provisions in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to indicate that the power over land has been devolved to the provincial councils. This has been accepted in judgements delivered by the Supreme Court," he said.

 He also said the judgement raises very serious issues relating to powers of Provincial Councils over land.

Over the past few years the Sri Lankan government has been acting in contravention of the constitutional provisions pertaining to land. In these circumstances, the recent judgement of the Supreme Court delivered by the current Chief Justice Mohan Peiris and two other judges raises very serious issues relating to land,” he said.

 “This matter is being carefully studied by us, in order to decide on our next course of action," he said.(Hafeel Farizs)