Perumal in Court contesting expulsion

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 February 2000, 16:12 GMT]
The expulsion of former Chief Minister of North East Provincial Councils, Varatharaja Perumal from the EPRLF was restrained yesterday by an enjoining order by Colombo District Court.

This was sequel to an application by petitioner S. Varaatharaja Perumal through Samararatne Associates.

Attorney at law Ikram Mohamed who supported the application submitted to the Court that the EPRLF has not held the meeting of the Polit bureau since1997. The present members of the EPRLF central committee ceased to hold office as it had not been duly elected.

Mr.Ikram continued that the plaintiff Varatharaja Perumal returned to Sri Lanka in January 1999 to reactivate the EPRLF party. The first defendant functioned as the Secretary General of the EPRLF without a mandate. He added that the defendant made an allegation that without the approval of the party the plaintiff supported the President during the recent election campaign.

The plaint sought a declaration that expulsion of the plaintiff from the EPRLF was not valid in law. It also seeks a declaration that the meeting of the Central Committee of the EPRLF held on January 20, 2000 at which a resolution to expel the plaintiff was adopted was void in law.

Suresh Premachandran and Tharmaraja Wilson are defendants in the case.