The Chief Justice has nominated a fuller Bench comprising seven judges of the Supreme Court to hear several Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions which challenged the Gazette Notification issued by President Maithripala Sirisena to dissolve Parliament.
A seven-judge-bench comprising Chief Justice Nalin Perera, Justice Priyantha Jayawardena, Justice Prasanna Jayawardena, Justice Buwaneka Aluvihare, Vijith Malalgoda, Sisira de Abrew and Murdu Fernando will hear these petitions on December 4.
The Attorney General, Prof. G.L. Peiris and four others, the intervenient petitioners of the Fundamental Rights petitions had sought an order in terms of
ef Justice nominate
Article 132(3) of the Constitution constituting a Divisional Bench comprising five judges or more judges of the Supreme Court presided over by Chief Justice to hear these petitions. The intevenient petitioners stated that they were seeking a fuller Bench since these applications are of public importance and related to interpretation of several importance provisions of the constitution.
On November 13, the Supreme Court three-judge-Bench headed by Chief Justice Nalin Perera unanimously issued an interim order staying the operation of the gazette notification issued by President to dissolve the parliament.
This interim order will be effective until December 7.
The Supreme Court further issued an Interim Order restraining the Election Commission from proceeding to take any steps to conduct the parliamentary election by virtue of the proclamation until December 7.
Accordingly, ten petitions filed by various political parties and several individuals were fixed for argument on December 4, 5 and 6. These petitions had been filed through Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sampanthan, UNP General Secretary Kabir Hashim, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem, All Ceylon Makkal Congress Party leader Rishad Bathiudeen, R.A.S.D. Perera, Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole, former MP Mano Ganeshan and Attorney-at-Law Lal Wijenayake and G.C.J. Perera.