Ceylinco depositors case: SC tells Brig. Silva to be transparent

At yesterday’s hearing into the case filed by the Ceylinco depositors, a Supreme Court Bench comprising Justices Eva Wanasundara, Anil Gunaratne and Upali Abeyratne asked Brigadier Ranjan Silva to be transparent in his dealings with the depositors.

The Court made this observation when considering the objections raised by Senior Counsel Ian Fernando, Dushantha Kularatne and the counsel for several other Depositors’ Associations of the Ceylinco Group including F&G, PDL and RECL.

Counsel Fernando raised objections to the proposal made by Mr. Silva’s Counsel Vishva de Livera Tennakoon requesting court to permit the Brigadier to sell at least

The Counsel said the copies of the motion submitted by Mr. Silva, seeking permission to sell the properties, had not been given to all the depositors’ associations

ten properties tied up in this on the basis that he needed funds to run the business and to pay the depositors.

The Counsel appearing for some of the other Depositors’ Associations also objected to the proposal saying Mr. Silva had grossly undervalued these properties.

They said even the extent of the properties were not correct and as such requested Court to assess their proper value to determine whether the land values shown in the proposal were correct.

The Counsel said the copies of the motion submitted by Mr. Silva, seeking permission to sell the properties, had not been given to all the depositors’ associations.

The Court directed Mr. Silva to forward copies of the motion detailing the assets to be sold and their valuation reports to the respondents and the petitioners in the case under registered cover or email, to enable the parties involved to prepare their arguments on the proposed sale.

The case was postponed for March 17.