Appeal Court dismisses petitions challenging CFA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 March 2007, 10:34 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal Tuesday rejected three petitions, one by the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the other two by all monks' party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), challenging the legal validity of the Ceasefire agreement signed on 22 February 2002 by Ranil Wickremasinghe, then Prime Minister of the United National Party (UNP) government of Sri Lanka and Velupillai Pirapaharan, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), legal sources in Colombo said.

Having heard the submission of the counsels for the petitioners and respondents, Justice S.Sriskandarajah said the petitioners have no legal basis to challenge the legality of the CFA and the Court of Appeal has no jurisdiction to issue a writ in this regard, legal sources said.

The petitioners said one of the respondents Ranil Wickremasinghe in the capacity of Prime Minister had not been empowered constitutionally to sign the agreement under the executive presidency.

The petition cited that Mr Wickremesinghe should have obtained permission from the Executive President prior to signing the agreement with the second respondent, legal sources said.

The petitioners further begged court to issue a writ to nullify the CFA.

These petitions were taken up for inquiry Tuesday in the Court of Appeal.

Petitioners had cited Ranil Wickremasinghe and Velupillai Pirapaharan as respondents.

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