Appeals Court issues notice on respondents in Jaffna land acquisition cases

•  2,176 Jaffna residents petition Court against land acquisition by Govt.; complain of prejudice

The Court of Appeal yesterday issued notice on respondents in cases filed by more than 2,000 Jaffna residents seeking relief against alleged land acquisition by the State.

The writ applications filed by 2,176 Jaffna Tamils in a bid to prevent their lands and homes being acquired by the Government were taken up for support before President of the Court of Appeal Justice S. Sriskandaraja yesterday.

The Court heard counsel and issued notice on the respondents to show cause by filing objections as to why the Court should not grant the reliefs asked for and set the date for that purpose on 10 July.

Counsel for the petitioners were permitted by the Court to reserve and retain the right to press for interim relief.

CA (Writ) 125/2013 (with 1,474 petitioners) and CA (Writ) 135/2013 (with 702 petitioners), both fixed for support yesterday were by petitioners who set out in their petitions the grave prejudice caused by the forcible acquisition of an area of the Jaffna Peninsula equivalent to two-third of the entire city of Colombo, the Tamil National Alliance said in a media release.

The petitioners in CA (Writ) 125/2013, who first came to court upon learning of initial steps under Section 2 of the Land Acquisition Act had amended their petition to include the fact that thereafter a purported publication under Section 38 Proviso A of the Land Acquisition Act had been gazetted by the Government, making out that the land is needed urgently, the statement said.

The petitions in both cases ask the Appeal Court to quash both steps taken – notice under Section 2 and further decision to acquire under Section 38 Proviso A by writs of Certiorari and for writs of Prohibition preventing further steps in that direction.

The petitioners in both cases who say they are forcibly prevented from accessing their lands, urge effectively that the steps to acquire their traditional lands to perpetuate their illegal military occupation is perverse and does not constitute a genuine or acceptable public purpose, and that no steps under Section 38 Proviso A could be legitimately taken in the given circumstances.

Among the prejudice complained of by the 2,176 petitioners is effective erosion of the rights of Tamils of the Jaffna Peninsula under their personal laws (known as ‘Tesawalamai’), which have been enjoyed and applicable for hundreds of years, the TNA said.

The petitioners in both cases were represented by K. Kanag-Isvaran, PC with M.A. Sumanthiran, Viran Corea, Lakshmanan Jeyakumar, Bhavani Fonseka and Niran Anketell instructed by Suntheralingam and Balendra, Attorneys-at-Law.

Deputy Solicitor General Murdu Fernando appeared for the respondents.