Sri Lankan Court of Appeal stays appointment of Rajapaksa as prime minister

The Sri Lankan Court of Appeal has passed an interim order preventing purported Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his 49-member purported Council of Ministers from functioning till the Quo Warranto petition filed by 122 Members of Parliament is adjudicated.

The court on Monday issued notices to Rajapaksa and his ministerial colleagues returnable on December 12, leading lawyer and MP MA Sumanthiran said.

According to leading lawyer JC Weliamuna, the President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena must now appoint a new prime minister and a new Council of Ministers who in his opinion enjoy the confidence of parliament.

It could be Ranil Wickremesinghe, who enjoys majority support in parliament. But the president had vowed that he would not appoint Wickremesinghe under any circumstances due to personal and ideological differences.

The president could still try to avoid appointing Wickremesinghe as prime minister by trying to convincing the United National Front (UNF) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to suggest another name, preferably United National Party's Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa. The president was to meet the UNF and TNA after 8 pm on Monday.

To woo the TNA he could agree to release some prisoners who the Tamils consider to be political detainees but are terrorists in the government's eyes.

Wickremesinghe is the leader of the single largest party in parliament – the United National Front. He also has the support of the 14-member TNA and the six-member Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

He had proved majority support on two occasions in the recent past, when his group successfully moved two Motions of No Confidence against Rajapaksa on Nov 14 and 16.

Consideration of the Writ of Quo Warranto resumed before the Court of Appeal for the second day on Monday morning.

It was taken up for consideration before a two-member judge bench consisting of Court of Appeal President Justice Preethi Padman Surasena and Justice Arjuna Obeysekara.

The Writ of Quo Warranto was filed by 122 MPs against Rajapaksa and his putative government’s continuation in office after two No-Confidence Motions had been passed against them in parliament on November 14 and 16.

In both cases, 122 MPs had voted against the Rajapaksa government in a House with a total membership of 225.

President Sirisena and the purported Prime Minister Rajapaksa had both refused to accept the voting result on the grounds that the Standing Orders of parliament were set aside and a vote by a show of hands or by the use of the electronic devise had not been taken.

Instead Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had opted for a voice vote.

The 122 MPs had named the purported Prime Minister Rajapaksa and 49 others as respondents of the case.

The current political crisis arose on Oct 26, when President Sirisena suddenly removed Wickremesinghe and appointed Rajapaksa, the leader of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), as prime minister saying that he could not work with Wickremesinghe for personal and ideological reasons.

The president then prorogued parliament till Nov 16 apparently to allow Rajapaksa to garner the support of 113 MPs so that he could run the government.

But when he found that Rajapaksa could not do it, the president, on Nov 9, dissolved parliament and ordered fresh elections to be held on Jan 5, 2019. A new parliament should meet on Jan 17, he further ordered.

Since all this was done despite the fact that Wickremesinghe had majority support in parliament, the appointment of Rajapaksa and the dissolution of parliament became highly contentious.

The dissolution of parliament was challenged in the Supreme Court which stayed it till Dec 7. The appointment of Rajapaksa as prime minister was taken to the Court of Appeal by 122 MPs with a Quo Warranto petition.

Meanwhile parliament Speaker Jayasuriya refused to recognise Rajapaksa as prime minister. He threatened to convene the dissolved parliament. Eventually, with the consent of President Sirisena, the speaker convened parliament on Nov 14.

The UNF, TNA and JVP used the reconvened parliament to pass two Motions of No Confidence against Rajapaksa and his cabinet. They also passed two resolutions to deny the purported Prime Minister Rajapaksa and his purported ministers access to state funds.