Supreme Court rules police violated Fundamental Rights of two farmers during 2018 protest

Colombo, July 8 (Daily Mirror) - The Supreme Court ruled that the police have violated the Fundamental Rights of two farmers who participated in a 2018 protest, by causing their remand custody through the submission of an unlawful report and moving for remand based on arbitrary reasons.

As a consequence, the court ordered former Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Aralaganwila Police Station, S.M.L.R. Bandara, to personally pay Rs. 30,000 in compensation to the petitioners.

The Supreme Court held that the former OIC had acted in a manner contravening Article 13(2) of the Constitution. 

The violations occurred during a protest held on June 6, 2018, at Kalukele Junction on the Polonnaruwa–Mahiyangana main road.

Despite these findings, the court ruled that the arrest of the two petitioners was not unlawful, and therefore no violationof their rights under Article 13(1) of the Constitution pertaining to protection from arbitrary arrest had occurred.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Yasantha Kodagoda, with Chief Justice Murdu Fernando and Justice S. Thurairaja agreeing, partially allowed the Fundamental Rights application.

The Court further emphasised the need for magistrates to be educated on the importance of exercising judicial discretion in applications for remand custody. 

“It is the expectation of this court that the Judges’ Institute will take necessary measures to educate magistrates on the principles contained in this judgment,” Justice Kodagoda observed.

The protest in question took place on June 6, 2018, with approximately 250 villagers from Kalukele demonstrating against the authorities’ failure to prevent wild elephants from invading their fields and homes. The protest blocked the main road for over two hours. 

Following the protest, police sought and obtained a magistrate’s order under Section 106 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act against two named individuals, instructing them to discontinue the demonstration.

The petitioners claimed they were unaware of the court order and that it was not specifically directed at them. Nevertheless, on June 18, 2018, they were arrested by officers of the Aralaganwila Police and remanded the same day by the Polonnaruwa Magistrate.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Registrar was directed to forward copies of this judgment to the several state parties including Attorney General, Director of Judges’ Training Institute, Inspector General of Police and Director General of Wildlife. 

Counsel Nuwan Bopage with Chathura Weththasinghe appeared for the petitioners.

Yuresha De Silva, DSG, Shaminda Wickrema, SSC and Sajith Bandara, SC appeared for the respondents.