Striking doctors face arrest

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 June 1999, 09:22 GMT]
The Colombo District Judge, A.W.Salam, issued a warrant today for the arrest of the president and committee members of the Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) for violating a court order by continuing with their strike.

The enjoining order restraining the two week old strike was issued by the Colombo District Judge on June 22 following an application from Mr.Sumitha Senanayake, Secretary of the Public Law Trust Foundation.

The District Judge further directed the Inspector General of Police to execute the warrant and said that the accused could be released on a personal bond of Rs. 20,000 each if they made an undertaking to be present in court on the day following the arrest.

President's Counsel, Mr.P.Kanaga-Iswaran, who appeared on behalf of Mr. Sumitha Senanayake, submitted to the court that the officials of the GMOA had continued with their strike in spite of their knowledge of the enjoining order.

It has been reported that the officials of the GMOA had decided to defy the court order and were consulting with their lawyers as to what defence was available to them.

The process-server, Ajith Kumara, said in court that he had served the injunction order at the office of the GMOA An officer at the GMOA had accepted the order and signed the time of acceptance in a book.

However after another officer intervened, the first officer who had signed to accept the injunction order struck off his signature from the book.

Witnesses said that they could identify those persons who were present at the GMOA office on that day. They said that the signature placed in the book could belong to an officer called Harischandra.

Further hearings were postponed till July 6.

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