JANATHA VIMUKTHI PERAMUNA EXPRESSES ITS DECISION TO CONTINUE WITH THE CASE TO QUASH THE MOU BETWEEN RANIL AND PRABHAKARAN
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
June 29, 10.20 PM:The junior partner of Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna has decided to continue with its case filed at the country’s Appeals Courts requesting the judges to issue a writ of certiorari to quash the agreement signed between former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran, it was revealed when the case was taken up , June 28 in Colombo .
To proceed with the case, the lawyers representing the JVP requested the three presiding judges to include the present members of the cabinet also as respondents in the case.
In this case filed March 2002, the petitioners requested the courts to quash the agreement as a whole or the clauses which contained the unlawful decisions .The applicants also asked a writ of prohibition to refrain the respondents from giving effect to the agreement .
The petitioners also stated in the application that former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had alienated the sovereignty of the Sri Lanka people by the agreement violating article 3 of the Constitution and the agreement was unlawful , unconstitutional and entered into without jurisdiction. The petitioners said under the Sri Lanka constitution the Prime Minister did not have any jurisdiction to declare war or peace and that power rested solely in the office of the country’s President.
To file amendments adding the current cabinet also as respondents , the judges allowed time till July 19 .
Similar petitions have been also filed by the political party Sihala Urumaya and Jathika Hela Urumaya. When the courts took up their case they were also granted time till July 19 to add the new respondents.
During earlier proceedings , LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had also been summoned to appear in the courts as a respondent . his summons were published in all national newspapers, including the Tamil ones.
