Parliamentarian Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the Court of Appeal Interim Order restraining him as Prime Minister until the final determination is reached with regard to the Quo Warranto writ petition filed by 122 Parliamentarians, including Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Through this appeal petition, Rajapaksa sought an order to set aside the Interim Order dated December 3 by the Court of Appeal.
He also sought an order to grant special leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal order in the writ application No.363/2018.
Rajapaksa alleged that the Court of Appeal erred in its failure to take cognizance of the absence of a proper and legally countenanced application before it in terms of the law in as much as inter alia the failure of the 122 MPs to have supported their application with affidavits countenanced by law.
He stated that the Court of Appeal erred in its failure to take due cognizance of its lack of jurisdiction to hear and determine the said writ application in which arose a number of matters involving and requiring interpretation of several constitutional provisions.
He further said the Court of Appeal erred in its failure to consider the legal effect of the cogent evidence adduced by some of 122 MPs by way of affidavits and documents, unedited Hansard issued officially by the office of Secretary General of Parliament and the video footage extracted from the official website of parliament depicting that the said uncorrected draft copies produced in court do not in fact depict accurately the parliamentary proceedings of the said date and that there were in fact no valid votes of no confidence passed in parliament as claimed by the 122 MPs.
Meanwhile, MPs Johnston Fernando, Dr. Wijeyedasa Rajapakshe, Dinesh Gunawardena and Chamal Rajapaksa also filed appeal petitions challenging Court of Appeal order dated December 3.They cited UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and 121 MPs and 49 others as respondents.
These petitions had been filed through counsel Sanath Wijewardena.
The Court of Appeal on December 3 issued an Interim Order restraining Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, his Ministers, the State Ministers and Deputy Ministers from holding their respective offices until a final determination is reached with regard to the Quo Warranto writ petition filed by 122 Parliamentarians, including Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Court of Appeal President, Justice Preethi Padman Surasena and Justice Arjuna Obeyesekere made this order consequent to a writ petition filed by United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and 121 other Parliamentarians.
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