The Court of Appeal today (February 11) extended the order directing the Secretary-General of the Parliament not to take any action regarding the parliamentary seat of incarcerated MP Ranjan Ramanayake.

Accordingly, the stay order will continue until the 16th of March.

Appeals Court President Justice Arjuna Obeysekara and Justice Mayadunne Correa issued the order when the writ application filed by MP Ramanayake seeking an interim order preventing the suspension of his seat in the Parliament was taken up earlier today.

President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran told the court that the lawyer representing the parliamentarian – Attorney-at-Law Faisz Mustapha, PC – is unable to appear before the bench on behalf of his client due to a personal reason.

He, thereby, sought the court to set another date to take the writ application for up for consideration. He also made a request to extend the stay order regarding MP Ramanayake’s parliamentary seat.

A contempt of court case against former State Minister Ranjan Ramanayake was filed over defamatory remarks made by him against the judiciary on the 21st of August in 2017.

Speaking to the media following a meeting with then-Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Temple Trees, Ramanayake claimed that the majority of judges in the country issue biased rulings and that they are corrupt.

On the 12th of January this year, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Sisira de Abrew, Vijith Malalgoda, and Preethi Padman Surasena delivered a unanimous verdict to sentence Ranjan Ramanayake to four years of rigorous imprisonment, as the charges against him were proven beyond a reasonable doubt.