The Supreme Court ruling that makes the three Rajapaksas – Gotabaya, Mahinda and Basil - and several others responsible for mishandling the economic crisis has been welcomed as a historic decision.
Although no punishment has been announced, it holds the country’s top officials to accountability, said Transparency International – Sri Lanka’s manager (research) Lasanthika Hettiarachchi.
Also, it did not order compensation for the entire country that was affected by their economic mismanagement, she told Neth News.
The Supreme Court yesterday (14) held that the Rajapaksa trio, former Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal and others are responsible for mishandling the economic crisis in the country.
In a majority decision, a Supreme Court five-judge-bench ruled that respondents including former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, the Monetary Board, former CBSL Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, former CBSL Governor W.D. Lakshman, former Treasury Secretary S.R. Artigala and former President's Secretaries P.B. Jayasundara and Saman Kumarasinghe have violated public trust.
The Supreme Court further held that the respondents have breached the fundamental rights to equal protection of the law in terms of Article 12(1) of the Constitution.
Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya observed that it would not be appropriate to issue an order that the respondents pay compensation to the petitioners since they have not claimed so in their petitions.
Therefore, the Supreme Court did not issue an order for compensation.
However, the Supreme Court ordered that each petitioner would be entitled to a legal cost of Rs. 150,000 by the respondents.
