Supreme Court underwrites that all court orders must be obeyed

The defendants in this case had prayed that they were only exercising their fundamental right to religion guaranteed in the Constitution and had claimed that no court can issue an enjoining order or injunction against them.

There shall be no exception on the basis of caste, creed, race or religion

by Arani Aravindan reporting from Colombo

(October 18, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Supreme Court made a historic order of profound significance that all persons, irrespective of caste, creed, race or religion should implicitly obey all court orders when a matter involving contempt proceedings was taken up before the Honourable Justices Shiranee Thilakawardane, K Sripavan and P A Ratnayake PC.

In this case the American Ceylon Mission and its treasurer Mr Arul Joseph had earlier filed an action in the District of Jaffna claiming that the American Ceylon Mission is an integral part of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South (JDCSI) and its officers are the Bishop, Secretary and the Treasurer of the JDCSI and they are the lawful persons who constitute the American Ceylon Mission.

Among the defendants in this case are the Rev Sellathurai Jeyanesan, Annappah Jeyakumaran, Annappah Jeyarajan, Vasanthi Rajaratnam, Shiranee Mills and Cally Rogers-Witte of the Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ. Earlier an enjoining order had been issued against these defendants restraining them from using the name “Church of the American Ceylon Mission.” This order was issued by the District Court of Jaffna on the complaint of the plaintiffs against the defendants.

The defendants had prayed that they were only exercising their fundamental right to religion guaranteed in the Constitution and had claimed that no court can issue an enjoining order or injunction against them.

The 3-Member Bench unanimously agreed that there was no need for any interpretation in this matter since all persons must implicitly obey court orders. The bench also directed that the case record be sent back to the District Court, Jaffna promptly to facilitate that the contempt inquiry is concluded expeditiously. The order of the 3-member bench was delivered by the Honourable Justice Shiranee Thialakawardane.

Counsels K Kanga-Iswaran PC with M A Sumanthiran appeared for the American Ceylon Mission while Counsels P Nagendra PC with A P Niles appeared for the defendants and Counsel Shibley Aziz PC appeared for the defendants who are resident in the US. - Sri Lanka Guardian