SC allows petitions against emergency declaration to proceed

The Supreme Court has granted leave to proceed with four fundamental rights petitions challenging the Extraordinary Gazette notification issued declaring a State of Emergency in the country on April 01.

The court granted leave to proceed with the FR petitions and issued notice on the respondents named in the petitions to file their objections, if any. The President had issued the gazette declaring a nationwide public emergency on April and later imposed a 36-hour curfew ahead of planned anti-government protests over the economic crisis in the country.

In a Gazette notification, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said the emergency rule ordinance would stand revoked as of midnight on April 5. The government had later assured that that emergency regulations and curfew had been invoked with the sole intention of ensuring peace and safety of public life and public and private property.

“Emergency Regulations and Curfew were invoked later in compliance with the stipulated legal provisions in order to protect human life, peace and public and private property,” it had said.