The Supreme Court yesterday (21) issued an order staying the proceedings of the Colombo High Court (CHC) relating to the X-Press Pearl marine pollution case until June 14.
This was when three Special Leave to Appeal petitions filed by the accused in the X-Press Pearl marine disaster case being heard in the Colombo High Court were considered before Justices A.H.M.D. Nawaz, Kumudini Wickremasinghe and K. Priyantha Fernando.
These petitions have been filed challenging the order dated March 12, 2024, of the Court of Appeal to dismiss without issuing notice the revision applications filed by the same petitioners against the order of the CHC dated October 20, 2023 to reject the preliminary objections of the accused to the X-Press Pearl case.
The accident involving the MV X-Press Pearl ship causing pollution of the sea and the coastal areas of the country took place between May 19 and June 2, 2021.
The AG has served indictments on eight accused in the CHC case including the ship’s Russian Captain Tyutkalo Vitaly and Sea Consortium Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, charging them on eight counts in terms of Section 26(a) of the Marine Pollution Prevention Act (MPPA) No. 35 of 2008.
The case was re-fixed for further support on June 14.
(dailynews.lk)
