The Supreme Court has decided to take a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed by a disabled soldier requesting Rs 10 million in compensation from the government over complete blindness in one eye caused by tear gas attacks during a protest stated by disabled soldiers in 2017.
The petition filed by a disabled soldier residing in Matara named Kankanamge Nishantha Mihiraj was taken up before the Supreme Court judge bench comprising of Justices Priyantha Jayawardena, Vijith Malalgoda, and Yasantha Kodagoda, today (15).
Accordingly, the judge bench decided to take up the petition on May 04, 2021.
Petitioner points out that disabled soldiers staged a protest in front of the Presidential Secretariat on November 07, 2017, demanding fair solutions for their pension issues.
The Petitioner charges that one of his eyes went completely blind by the tear gas fired arbitrarily by the police to disperse the protest.
Stating that this has greatly inconvenienced him, the petitioner claims that the police have violated his fundamental rights by this act.
