The Supreme Court has declared that the recommendations and findings issued by the Commission of Inquiry, which was established by former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to investigate political vendettas during his administration, are invalid.
The ruling specifically concerns the recommendations made against President Secretary Saman Ekanayake, former Deputy Inspector General of Criminal Investigation Department Ravi Seneviratne, former Director Shani Abeysekera, and others. The Court has also ordered the government to pay 150,000 rupees each in court fees to the petitioners.
The petitioners—former High Court Judge Padmini Ranawaka Gunathilake, former Navy Commander Travis Sinnaiah, Ananda Wijepala, President’s Attorney Upul Jayasuriya, and Sandhya Eknaligoda—argued that the commission’s recommendations were unlawful as they were issued without consulting them. They claimed that their fundamental rights were violated by the commission’s actions.
The Court found that the commission’s recommendations breached the petitioners’ fundamental human rights, leading to their nullification. The commission’s chairman, former Supreme Court judge Upali Abeyratne, and its members Chandra Jayathilaka and Chandra Fernando were named as respondents in the case.
