Former Chief Justice changes his mind

Says time for someone to think of merger of North and East:

Former Chief Justice Sarath Silva who has thrown his lot with the UNP/JVP combine in support of Sarath Fonseka has made a case for the merger of the now fully demerged North Eastern Province.

It was a Supreme Court Bench headed by the former CJ himself who in a famous judgement effected the demerger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces which came to be separate units under the 13th Amendment in terms of the Indo-Lanka Accord.

The basis for this judgement under the hand of the former CJ was that the conditions for such merger under the Indo-Lanka accord and the 13th Amendment had not been fulfilled due to the failure to disarm militant groups or in the absence of a cessation of hostilities.

However, in an interview with the weekend Lakbima News Sarath Silva has held out the prospect of once again merging the now demerged North and East Provinces, now that the conditions that gave rise to a full merger as per his judgement no longer obtained with the cessation of hostilities and disarmament, according to him.

Interestingly it was the JVP which filed the case before the Supreme Court to merge the two provinces.

Now with both petitioners and the adjudicator of the case on the same side sharing common cause a question arises if the views expressed by Sarath Silva in favour of once again merging the North and East Provinces has the sanction of the JVP.

The former Chief Justice in the interview said: "Today, there's a cessation of hospitalities and disarmament. Now is the time for someone to merge and have a referendum if somebody is so minded."