Court asks AG to appear on Fundamental Rights petition

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 May 2007, 11:47 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court Friday issued notice on the Attorney General (AGT) to appear in court on 30 August and provide his submission on the Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed by the Jaffna undergraduate Sivaraj Paheerathan. Mr. Paheerathan was released about two weeks ago by the Colombo Chief Magistrate on a report submitted by the Attorney General that there was no evidence to implicate Paheerathan with any offence, legal sources said.

The FR application of Sivaraj Paheerathan came up for inquiry before a bench of three judges of the Supreme Court Friday. The bench comprised Justices Nihal Jayasinghe, Chairman, Nimal Dissanayake and Andrew Somawanse.

Dr.Thiyagar Thirunavukarasu, Senior Counsel for the petitioner submitted his argument.

The court thereafter announced that court will decide on accepting the FR application after hearing the submission of the Attorney General.

Accordingly the court directed its Registrar to issue notice on the Attorney General returnable on August 30, sources said.

Sivaraj Paheerathan was arrested by the SLA about nine months ago while staying in the office of the Jaffna University Students Forum during a cordon and search operation held in the vicinity. SLA claimed he was in possession of some pamphlets allegedly distributed by an organization called Peoples Army at that time of arrest. Mr.Paheerathan was handed over to Kankesanthurai Police. Thereafter he was airlifted to Colombo and kept under detention under the Emergency Regulations till he was released.