Deadlock of 8 cases filed by SLT against Dialog, a shady deal

Eight court cases filed by Sri Lanka Telecom against Dialog Broadband Network (Pvt.) Ltd and Dialog Axiata have suddenly faced a standstill after the year 2020, reports say.

The cases are in respect of last mile connectivity and related matters.

The cases reached a deadlock after the current SLT chairman - Rohan Fernando commenced his tenure in February 2019.

The cases are : Case no. CA/289/2015 filed at the Court of Appeal, cases no. SC/FR 194/2016 and SC/HC/LA 82/2018 (Appeal Number 139/2018) filed at the Supreme Court, case no. DSP 0088/2017 filed at the Colombo District Court, case no. DSP 91/2017 filed at the District Court, cases no. WP/HCCA/LA/132/2019 and WP/HCCA/COL/07/2018 filed at the Civil Appeals High Court of Colombo and case no. CHC/Civil/23/2017 filed at the Colombo Commercial Court as well as Writ petition No. CA 26/2019 filed at the Appeal Court.

Despite the SLT already having 12 lawyers in its legal section, a hefty sum has been spent for outsourcing legal assistance for these cases.