A petition has been submitted to the Court of Appeal asking for an order to nullify the announcement issued by the Secretary of the Ministry of Defense to return the firearms issued on licenses to individuals for personal protection.
The petition has been submitted by Avenra Hotel Group CEO H.D.Navinthaka de Silva.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, the Director of the State Intelligence Service and the Acting Inspector General of Police have been named as respondents.
In this petition filed through lawyer Mr. Sanath Wijayawardena, the petitioner claims that he obtained firearms under a license from the Ministry of Defense due to serious threats against him in 2012 or 2013.
He has mentioned in his petition that his hotels were damaged during the struggle and he suffered a huge loss due to that.
In this situation, the petitioner states that he has come to know that the Secretary of Defense has issued an announcement on the 7th to return the firearms issued under the license. It has also been mentioned that an appeal was filed against this decision but to no avail.
Accordingly, the petitioner had requested the Court of Appeal to issue a writ of invalidity of the notification issued by the Secretary of Defense and to issue an interim restraining order to prevent the implementation of the notification until a final decision is issued after hearing this petition.