Petitions allege Rajitha, Wimal biased

Two senior lawyers in a petition filed in the Appeal Court alleged that Cabinet Ministers Rajitha Senaratne and Wimal Weerawansa were not eligible to sit in the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to investigate the charges against the Chief Justice as they might be biased having received judgments unfavourable to them in the Supreme Court.

The Writ Petitions of Prohibition filed by senior lawyers Nimal Weerakody and Chandrapala Kumarage came up before the Bench comprising Justices S. Sriskandarajah (President C/A), Anil Goonaratne and A.W.A. Salam today.

President’s Counsel Ikram Mohamed with R. Hettiarachchi and Nilanga Udalagama appeared for Mr. Weerakody while President’s Counsel Sanjeeva Jayawardena with Shenany Dayaratne and Rajeev Amarasuriya appeared for Mr. Kumarage.

Court told the petitioners’ Counsel that it was A 3rd party complaint and that it was the person who was affected who should have complained to the court and that is the affected party who should complain to the PSC on the basis of bias.

Counsel asked for time to obtain further instructions and reserved their right to take up the matter for support for notice by motion if necessary on another date. The Court fixed the matter to be mentioned on December 11 (S.S. Selvanayagam)