The Supreme Court yesterday directed the Attorney General to produce a report on the composition of the current Cabinet on or before May 4. The order was made by the Supreme Court when the fundamental rights petition which filed in the Supreme Court seeking an interim order challenging the manner in which the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed the present Cabinet, stating it is contrary to the legal provisions and suspending its activities, was taken up before a Bench comprising Justices Murdu Fernando, Gamini Amarasekera and Shiran Gunaratne.
Attorney Dharshana Weraduwage appeared for the petitioner and stated that despite the petition being filed against the Cabinet, the President has taken steps to change the names and subjects of the present Ministries.
He also pointed out that the relevant Gazette Notification No. 226851 was issued on 23/02/2022 and Gazette Notifications No. 227014 and 227017 were issued on 08/03/2022.
He also said that several ministers have changed the names and subjects of the Ministries where they currently hold ministerial posts.
He requested that the respondents be directed to submit a report containing these gazette notifications and their details.
Additional Solicitor General Indika Demuni de Silva, who appeared on behalf of the Attorney General, objected to that request. She noted that there are currently two detailed reports on the composition of the current cabinet. After considering the facts, the court directed to file all the documents required to file the report before May 4 and objections to the documents were ordered to be filed on or before May 11.
The petition will be taken up again on May 18.
The petition was filed by the Secretary of the National Front of Professionals, Engineer Kapila Renuka Perera.
The petition names 82 persons including the Attorney General on behalf of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, members of the Cabinet, all State Ministers, the Secretary to the President and the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance as the respondents. According to the petition, the number of cabinet ministers that can be appointed under the current constitution is 30 and the number of state ministers is 40.
The petition states that there are currently 32 Cabinet Ministers due to the appointment of Basil Rajapaksa as the Minister of Finance and Namal Rajapaksa as the Minister of Supervising Development. It has also pointed out that there are 44 state ministers due to appointments of Chamal Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa, Dilum Amunugama, Sudarshani Fernandopulle as state ministers.