Case on National List re-fixed to be mentioned on Oct. 9

The Supreme Court on Monday (28) re-fixed to be mentioned on October 9 the petition, challenging the inclusion of the defeated candidates in the national list Parliamentarians, to be considered as to whether it is required to be heard before the Fuller Bench as well as its maintainability.

Communist Party General Secretary D.E.W.Gunasekera in his fundamental rights petition cited Elections Commissioner, United People’s Freedom Alliance General Secretary Vishwa Warnapala, UNP General Secretary Kabir Hashim, JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (Known as Federal Party) General Secretary S.Thurairajasingham, Attorney General and others as Respondents.

Tilanga Sumathipala (Colombo), B. Mahinda Samarasinghe (Kalutara), S.B. Dissanayake (Kandy), Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena (Matara), Angajan Ramanathan (Jaffna), A.M.H.M.Lebbe ( Batticaloa) and G.Vijith Wijayamuni Zoysa (Monaragala) all of UPFA as well as M.H.M.Navavi (UNP – Putalam), Sunil Handunnetti (People’s Liberation Front – Matara) along with Kathirgamathamby Thurairathasingham (Trincomalee) and Shanthi Srikandarasa (Mullaitivu) all of ITAK were cited as the defeated candidates.

Petitioner states the political parties recently submitted their lists of persons to be elected as Members of Parliament

He seeks the Court to quash all appointments of Members of Parliament elected by the Elections Commissioner under the natural law whose names had not been duly gazetted by the Elections Commissioner during the nomination period for the information of the voters

during the nomination period to the Elections Commissioner.

Further to the notice served by the Elections Commissioner, the General Secretaries of the above said parties submitted their respective lists of nominees to fill the seats allocated to them through national lists, he states.

The combined lists so presented by the political parties did contain the names of several candidates who had been defeated at the General Election – 2015, he laments.He is seeking the Court to declare that the insertion of Article 99A to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution has been made by fraudulent means, completely deceiving the lawmakers and the people without adhering to the mandatory requirement stipulated in Article 43 of the Constitution and without obtaining people’s approval at a referendum followed by a certification of the Executive President.

He is asking for a declaration from the Court that the Elections Commissioner has violated the fundamental right to equality and equal protection of the law of the Petitioner where the Elections Commissioner had declared t he candidates who had been defeated at the General Elections – 2015 as Members of Parliament outside the list of nominees submitted to him.

He seeks the Court to quash all appointments of Members of Parliament elected by the Elections Commissioner under the natural law whose names had not been duly gazetted by the Elections Commissioner during the nomination period for the information of the voters.

He also seeks the Court to issue a mandatory order compelling the Elections Commissioner to declare the petitioner whose name has been duly gazetted as a Member of Parliament.