N-E demerger case: Two citizens file petitions

Wasantha Ramanayake

COLOMBO: Two residents of Karaithivu and Trincomalee filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to intervene in the North-East demerger case.

N. Jeyenathan of Karaithivu and K. Thambaiah of Trincomalee filed an intervening petition seeking a declaration that the amalgamation of the North and Eastern Provinces was valid and legally binding. They also sought to dismiss the Fundamental rights application filed by the JVP to demerge the North East Province.

The rights application will be heard before a Bench of five Supreme Court Judges on Friday (15). The Bench will comprise of Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva PC and Justices Nihal Jayasinghe, N.K. Udalagama, Raja Fernando and Nimal Gamini Amaratunga.

The intervening-petitioners stated that the merger had been made lawfully and could not be challenged as unlawful. They stated that the current instability would aggravate and seriously affect the negotiated settlement if the merger was declared illegal.

The intervening-petitioners stated that the North and East had been a place of historical habitation of Tamils from time immemorial and that any benefit from that area should rightly given to the Tamil People.

Earlier petitioners Trincomalee JVP Parliamentarian Jayantha Wijesekera and two other petitioners filed three Fundamental Rights Petitions in the Supreme Court seeking to de-merge the North-East province.

The petitioners sought two persons to be appointed by the President as Governors of the Northern Province and the Eastern Province.

They also sought declarations that the proclamation made by the then President published in the gazette dated September 8, 1988 merging the North and East provinces into a single unit of administration and the Emergency Regulations declared on September 2, 1988 were null and void without having any legal effect.

They cited the Attorney General, the Governor of the North-East Provincial Council and the Commissioner of Elections as respondents.

They stated that the merger was illegal since the Section 37(1) of the Provincial Councils Act No. 42 of 1987 was not validly amended. They contended that the purported amalgamation was invalid and the two provinces remained as two separate administrative units.

The United Socialist Party and its General Secretary Siritunga Jayasuriya had also filed a intervening petition in the Supreme Court seeking to dismiss the Fundamental Rights application filed by the JVP on the basis that the Amendment to the Constitution that warranted the merger had taken a permanent effect as it had been duly approved by the Parliament.

The hearing was fixed for September 15.