TNA battles move from Jaffna to Supreme Court

The on-going internal conflict between Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members loyal to Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan reached the Supreme Court this week. Both parties accused each other of taking revenge for their different political stance through a legal battle.

Following a Contempt of Court case filed by former Provincial Minister B. Deniswaran who secured an interim order from the Court of Appeal to reinstate him as a PC Minister, one time Supreme Court Justice Wigneswaran presented himself on Friday before the very court he once sat on, along with current Provincial Ministers who have been named as respondents. The Court postponed the case for September 18 and ordered the Chief Minister and the Provincial Ministers to be present when the case is to be taken up for hearing.

Earlier, the Court of Appeal granted interim relief to Mr. Deniswaran the provincial minister for Fisheries, Transport, Trade and Rural Development, after he claimed that the Chief Minister acted arbitrarily when he removed him from the board of ministers. The court also held that Mr. Deniswaran was duly appointed and that he continues in his post as before.

K. Kanag-Isvaran PC who represented Chief Minister Wigneswaran told court that the root cause for this case was the political differences that existed within the TNA, of which the chief minister the provincial minister were members. Speaking to the media outside the Superior Court complex, Chief Minister Wigneswaran alleged that TNA Parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran was behind this legal battle for political reasons, using the unseated Minister as a proxy while petitioner Deniswaran accused the Chief Minister of planning to break away from the TNA and form a new party with likeminded followers in the council.