Court explores relaxing restrictions on Jaffna to Colombo travel

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 16:33 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday, in a Fundamental Rights petition inquiry, directed the Attorney General to consider the relaxation of the procedure now being in force to obtain special permission from the defence ministry to travel from Jaffna to Colombo, legal sources in Colombo said. Senior Counsel, Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy, filed the FR petition that the restriction imposed on residents of Jaffna traveling from Jaffna to Colombo without special permission from the security forces is violation of fundamental rights, according to court documents.

The FR petition came up for inquiry before a three-member bench of the Supreme Court comprised of Chief Justice Asoka de Silva and Justices Ms Shiranee Thilakwardene and Chandra Ekanayake Friday.

The Defence Ministry Secretary, Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and several security and civil officials from Jaffna were cited as respondents.

The petitioner brought to the notice of the court that the travel restrictions are severe inconvenience to Jaffna residents who are to attend to family business including weddings and funerals of their relatives, and those who are to attend interviews in Colombo.

The court instructed the Attorney General to look into the possibility of relaxing the restriction and to submit a report on the issue on November 3 when the case is to be called further inquiry, legal sources said.