The Supreme Court today held that several respondents including former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and former Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal are responsible for mishandling economic crisis in the country.
Accordingly, in a majority decision a Supreme Court five-judge-bench ruled that respondents including former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, the Monetary Board, former CBSL Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, former CBSL Governor W.D. Lakshman, former Treasury Secretary S.R. Artigala and former President's Secretaries P.B. Jayasundara and Saman Kumarasinghe have violated public trust.
The Supreme Court further held that the respondents have breached the fundamental rights to equal protection of the law in terms of Article 12(1) of the Constitution.
Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya observed that it would not be appropriate to issue an order that the respondents pay compensation to the petitioners since they have not claimed so in their petitions.
Therefore, the Supreme Court did not issue an order for compensation. However, the Supreme Court ordered that each petitioner would be entitled to a legal cost of Rs. 150,000 by the respondents.
(dailymirror.lk)
