Wigneswaran’s sacking of NPC minister illegal, court rules

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The Court of Appeal has decided that former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran’s order to remove former Northern Province Minister B. Deniswaran from his post was illegal.

The decision was delivered by a judge bench comprising Justices Mahinda Samayawardena and Priyantha Fernando when the case was taken up today (5).

Former Northern Province Minister of Fisheries, Transport, Trade and Rural Development Balasubramaniam Deniswaran had lodged a case against Wigneswaran over removing him from the ministerial portfolio.

The Court of Appeal had recently issued an interim order, halting this decision taken by the former Chief Minister Wigneswaran.

Subsequently, Deniswaran filed a petition before the Court of Appeal against CM Wigneswaran accusing him of Contempt of Court by failing to carry out the court order to re-appoint him in his ministerial portfolio.

However, Wigneswaran had filed preliminary objections against the petition, stating that the relevant petition is against the law, but the objections were rejected by the court.

The official term of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), established for the first time following the end of the war in the country, had ended on October 24, 2018.