The Court of Appeal has ordered to take up the petition, seeking Quo Warranto preventing Ranil Wickremesinghe from being a Member of Parliament, on January 31 for confirmation of submissions.
The petition, filed by Sharmila Gonawala, the Co-President of ‘Women for Justice’, was taken up before Court of Appeal judge bench consisting of Justice Arjuna Obeysekara today (22).
The petitioner states that PM Ranil Wickremesinghe is a shareholder of Lake House group and that Lake House Printers and Publishers PLC, a company in that group, is engaged in the business of printing of check leaves for the state-owned Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank.
The petitioner hence argues that by doing business after entering into contracts with Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank, as a shareholder of Lake House, Ranil Wickremesinghe has become ineligible to hold a seat in parliament.
She states that as per Constitutional provisions, under this condition Wickremesinghe is not qualified to hold office as a Member of Parliament (MP).
She has further sought an interim order preventing PM Wickremesinghe from Parliament sitting and voting.
