An open letter to The Inspector General of Police

by Chitral Perera

NON-COMPLIANCE WITH SUPREME COURT ORDER

(August 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This refers to the non-compliance of the Supreme Court Order by you as per judgments issued on the two cases bearing No. SC/FR 258/2007 and SC/FR 224/2006.

The judgment on SC/FR Case No. 258/2007 was delivered on May 13, 2009. Accordingly, the Supreme Court ordered you to pay a sum of Rs. 75,000/-( seventy five thousand) as compensation to the petitioner, Uduwa Athukoralage Chandrasena.

Subsequently, this petitioner had, in writing, intimated this to you in your capacity as IGP, the Attorney General and the Registrar of the Supreme Court. The Attorney who appeared for the petitioner too had on several occasions informed this to the State Counsel who represented you in the case..

However, this money has not yet been deposited at the Supreme Court despite the Order to settle that amount in three months.

Meanwhile, the judgment on the case of SC/FR 224/2006, delivered on April 27, 2009 stipulates that the first respondent-the Police Sergeant Sunil (R11834) should personally pay a sum of Rs. 75,000/- to the petitioner in addition to another Rs.10,000/- as legal costs.

No steps have been taken to settle this sum of money up to date, as well.

When the petitioner's Attorney inquired this from his counterpart who represented the respondent, the latter had informed that his client-the respondent Sergeant Sunil- had no money to make this payment.

Accordingly, the IGP had, in the first instance, ignored the Supreme Court Order thus setting a bad precedent for Police Officers at the lower rank to violate Supreme Court Orders.

This type of attitude clearly suggests a kind of challenge in the form of "No matter what the Supreme Orders. We won't pay, you can do anything," posed by you and your subordinates against petitioners in FR cases.

It is one year and two months and one year and three months respectively since the judgments on FR cases SC/FR 258/2007 & SC/FR/224/2006 were delivered.

Therefore, you will certainly agree with us if We state the fact that, you, as the head of the police department have decided to challenge the Supreme Court Order by ignoring it completely.

It is our contention that this situation is highly pre-planned, specially in the context where the petitioners have just one legal remedy to ensure them receive this compensation. That is, to file a Defamation of Court Case against these respondents!

This kind of a legal action is four times costlier than the amount of compensation they have been granted.

Therefore, we have been constrained to come to the final conclusion that the learned Attorneys and the Attorney General have thoroughly briefed you and your entire Police Force on this very costly exercise.

Thanking you,

Yours

Sgd./ Chitral Perera
Secretary, Janasansadaya.