The Supreme Court today (16) rejected a request made by the Attorney General regarding the appeal petition filed by the directors of the local representative company of the ship in the relevant case, seeking an order to suspend the indictment filed by the Attorney General before the Colombo High Court regarding the Express Pearl ship fire incident.
The Attorney General had requested the court to take up the relevant appeal petition before a full bench of Supreme Court judges.
The motion filed by the Attorney General was taken up today before a three-member bench of Supreme Court judges comprising Chief Justice Murdu Fernando, A. H. M. D. Nawaz and Achala Vengappuli.
At that time, Deputy Solicitor General Madhava Tennakoon, appearing for the Attorney General, presented evidence before the court and requested that a full bench be appointed for the purpose, as several very important issues related to this case are to be resolved.
President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva and Sarath Jayamanne, appearing for the directors of the ship’s local representative company, strongly opposed the request, stating that there was no legal basis for the request.
The President’s Counsel, appearing for the defendants, pointed out that such a request should be made at the beginning of the trial and that it was baseless for the Attorney General to make such a request when a date had been set for the hearing of the appeal petition.
The three-member Supreme Court bench, which considered the arguments presented by both parties, rejected the Attorney General’s request.