SL Appeal Court to decide on CFA inquiry

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 January 2007, 17:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal Wednesday fixed the inquiry for 06 March into the petitions by the Sinhala extreme nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party and the Buddhist nationalist all monks Jathika Hela Urumaya seeking the Sri Lanka judiciary to declare that the Ceasefire Agreement, signed on 22 February 2002, is null and void on the basis that it contravened the constitution of the country.

The Appeal Court Judge S.Sriskandarajah said he would deliver his order on that day whether these petitions will be taken up for inquiry or not, legal sources said.

Plaintiffs- political parties have stated in their petitions that the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe had signed the ceasefire agreement with the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) V.Pirapaharan without the authority of the Executive President of Sri Lanka.

Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe has not empowered under the constitution of the country to sign the CFA. As such the Court should declare that the CFA is null and void, the Plaintiffs claim.

JVP and JHU have cited the then Prime Minister Mr. Wickremasinghe, then ministers in his cabinet, the current Cabinet of Ministers and LTTE leader Mr. Pirapaharan as respondents.

The extreme nationalist parties have earlier succeeded in judicial scuttling of the Internationally promoted Post-Tsunami joint mechanism and in SL Supreme Court judgement that the 18-year-old merger arrangement of NorthEast was unconstitutional.