1474 Jaffna Tamils’ Writ Case Against Land Grab By Rajapaksa Regime To Be Supported On Next Monday

May 20, 2013

CA (Writ) 125/2013, the case filed by 1474 desperate landowners of the Jaffna Province against steps by the Rajapaksa regime to take over their traditional lands in the Jaffna Peninsula came up today (20.05.2013) in the Appeal Court before Justice S. Sriskandaraja, President of the Court of Appeal.

When the case was taken up, court was informed by K. Kanag-Isvaran, PC appearing with M. A. Sumanthiran, Viran Corea, Bhavani Fonseka, Lakshmanan Jeyakumar and Niran Anketell that it had been brought to the petitioners’ attention after the case was filed, that a so-called order for urgent acquisition purportedly under section 38 proviso A of the Land Acquisition Act had also been published in a Government Gazette, which also the petitioners wish to challenge and have quashed by court. A motion had been filed on behalf of the petitioners, presenting the Gazette publication to court.

Kanag-Isvaran told court that he was in a position to demonstrate that both the purported notice under section 2 of the Land Acquisition Act and the purported order under section 38 proviso A of that Act by the Minister of Land, were bad and liable to be quashed by court in the light of well-established principles of administrative law.

Court permitted the petitioners’ application to amend the petition to add a prayer to also seek the quashing of the so-called publication/order under section 38 proviso A of the Land Acquisition Act, and directed that the case is to be taken up for support on 27.05.2013 (next Monday) after the amended petition is filed, with notice to the respondents.

Details of the case and the full petition obtained by the Colombo Telegraph were published in an earlier news report.

The Colombo Telegraph is reliably informed that thousands more are due to resort to litigation in a bid to save their lands from being taken from them by the ruling regime.

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1474 Northern Tamils Petition Appeal Court To Help Prevent Grab Of Their Homes By Rajapaksa Regime

Norway tells Lanka: Respect Vienna Convention

By Chandani Kirinde-Sunday, May 19, 2013
View(s): 1120

Norway has asked Sri Lanka to comply with “well established international rules on diplomatic immunity” after a Colombo Court ruled that the former Norwegian Ambassador and three officials did not have immunity in a huge transaction involving an NGO. Norway’s Ambassador Grete Lochen said yesterday that her government had held the position that the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations should be respected since Sri Lanka was a party to this convention. “Diplomats and state officials from Sri Lanka are enjoying the same privileges when serving their government,” she said in an email interview.

The ambassador said the Norwegian embassy was carefully studying the translation of the Colombo District Court order in which four Norwegian nationals including the country’s former Ambassador Hilde Haraldstad were being held accountable for the non-fulfillment of a financial transaction with a local NGO.

Colombo Additional District Judge Amali Ranaweera ruled out diplomatic immunity for former Norwegian Ambassador Harlstad and three other Norwegian Foreign Ministry officials in a case filed by Kumar Rupasinghe, the head of the Foundation for Co-existence (FCE). Mr. Rupasinghe is seeking Rs. 98.5 million from the Norwegians for failing to honour an agreement between his NGO and the Norwegian Government.

The NGO leader said he had taken bank overdrafts because of the Norwegian undertaking and he had to pay this money back now.
Ambassador Lochen said Norway’s decision to terminate the agreement with FCE was in accordance with the termination clauses in the agreement relating to non-fulfillment of the recipient’s obligations.