Appeals Court rejects Wigneswaran’s request

The Court of Appeal today rejected the request by Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran and two others to postpone the Contempt of Court case filed against them until a verdict is issued by the Supreme Court.
 
The request was made by Wigneswaran, Northern Province Ministers Ananthy Sasitharan and P. Sivanesan.
 
The Court of Appeal recently issued an interim order, halting the decision of Wigneswaran to remove Balasubramaniam Deniswaran, former Northern Province Minister of Fisheries, Transport, Trade and Rural Development, from his ministerial portfolio.
 
Subsequently, B. Deniswaran filed a complaint a complaint at the Court of Appeal against CM Wigneswaran accusing him of Contempt of Court by failing to carry out the court order to re-appoint him in his ministerial portfolio until now.
 
Accordingly, they requested the court to postpone the hearing of the case until the Supreme Court issues a verdict.
 
Attorney representing former NP Minister B. Deniswaran informed the court that the Supreme Court has not issued an order to suspend the hearing of the case.Hence, the Court of Appeal has no obstruction to hear the Contempt of Court charges against Chief Minister Wigneswaran and the two other provincial ministers, the attorneys representing B. Deniswaran have further mentioned.

When the case was taken up before a two-member judge bench comprising Justices Kumudini Wickramasinghe and Janak De Silva, the attorneys representing C.V. Wigneswaran and the other two NP ministers informed the court that a hearing regarding the case is scheduled to be taken up before the Supreme Court on September 28.
 
Considering the submissions, the Court of Appeal decided to reject the request sought by the attorneys representing Wigneswaran.
 
Subsequently, they presented preliminary objections against the decision of the Court of Appeal, claiming that it has no authority to hear the Contempt of Court case.

Accordingly, the hearing of the preliminary objections was taken up before the court and further hearing of the objections was postponed to October 16.
 
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal extended the interim order, halting the decision of Chief Minister Wigneswaran to remove former NP Minister B. Deniswaran from his ministerial portfolio until October 17.(Derana)