AG: Signature placed on Citizenship Certificate valid Petition against Gotabaya:
Posted on October 2nd, 2019
By Chitra Weeraratne and A.J Abeynayake Courtesy The Island
Deputy Solicitor General Nerin Pulle, on behalf of Attorney General Dappula de Livera, yesterday, informed the Court of Appeal that the signature placed on the citizenship certificate of Gotabaya Rajapaksa by Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his capacity as the President, was legitimate.
DSG Pulle said that the executive President had the authority to exercise powers of ministers as and when subjects were not assigned to them, the Court of Appeal was told.
The court was also told that President Rajapaksa had signed Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s citizenship certificate in terms of the constitutional powers vested in him.
DSG Pulle appeared before the Court of Appeal in connection with a petition filed by civil society activists Gamini Viyangoda and Chandragupta Thenuwara seeking a court order to prevent the former Defence Secretary from contesting the presidential poll.
The Attorney General told court that the Controller of Immigration and Emigration had informed him that his institution didn’t have any document pertaining to the issuance of citizenship certificate to Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Asked by the President of the Court of Appeal, Yasantha Kodagoda, PC, why the relevant file couldn’t be found, DSG Pulle said that due to the Immigration and Emigration Office being shifted, from Bambalapitiya to Punchi Borella, in 2005, not only Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s file but all documents issued upto 2007 were not available.
DSG Pulle said that steps had been taken to record documents onto computers.
President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva, appearing for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, said that the Attorney General had been silent on the destruction of documents during that period.
PC de Silva said that as the Magistrate’s Court was hearing a case in respect of a complaint made by the petitioners, the Court of Appeal lacked the judicial power to provide relief or issue an order in that regard.
DSG Pulle said that there hadn’t been reports to the effect that documents were destroyed during that period.
Counsel for petitioners, Suren Fernando, said that the citizenship certificate was not legitimate as the documents relevant to the issuance of the said certificate couldn’t be considered legitimate.
Counsel Fernando said that though in terms of the Citizenship Act 19(2) the certificate issued to a dual citizen could be signed only by the Secretary to the ministry responsible for the subject, President Rajapaksa signed it.
Counsel Fernando said that though at the time Mahinda Rajapaksa had signed the Citizenship Certificate, on Nov 21, 2015, he had been elected President, he was yet to take oaths. The immigration and emigration subject had been assigned to a minister by way of a gazette notification only on Dec 08, 2005, Counsel Fernando told the court.
Pointing out that the election of a non-citizen as the President posed a grave danger to national security and sovereignty of the country, the Counsel asked for an interim order as sought by the petitioners.
The Court of Appeal will convene at 1.30 pm today.
The bench comprised justices Yasantha Kodagoda, Arjuna Obeysekera and Mahinda Samayawardena
October 2nd, 2019 at 3:33 pm
How does non citizen Mahendran signed Sri Lankan currency notes. Are those currency notes has any value. Let the same Court of Appeal give suitable answer to this question as well.
October 2nd, 2019 at 3:41 pm
How does non citizen Mahendran signed Sri Lankan currency notes. Are those currency notes has any value?. Let the same Court of Appeal give suitable answer to this question as well. My dual citizenship has signed by President Chandrika Bandaranayke and Assistant Secretary of Defence Ministry. In Gota case brother Mahinda knows all details of his brother Gota to approve the Dual Citizen application. Due to the Immigration and Emigration Office being shifted, from Bambalapitiya to Punchi Borella, in 2005, not only Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s file but all documents issued up to 2007 were not available. This is very common incident in all Departments & Ministries who were shifting from place to place.
October 2nd, 2019 at 5:13 pm
Where are the patriots? We only have political party supporters. No one (high emphasis – absolutely no one) cares about Sri Lanka, it’s borders, citizenship, elections, territorial sovereignty and the law.
So Sri Lanka does not know who its dual citizens are! It means before 2007 any foreigner could have become a Sri Lanka citizen and we have no record of it since 2007. (We had their records before 2007). Department of persons registration was taken under the ministry of defence in 2009.
Even if we assume Gota is correct – that he was legally granted dual citizenship on November 21, 2005, – then he has done an offence if he voted on November 18, 2005 at the presidential election. That is an offence punishable by a prison term.
So which offence did he do?
1. Voting illegally in 2005 when he was not a citizen?
or
2. Illegally claiming to be a Sri Lankan citizen in 2019 and obtaining a Sri Lankan passport?
Either way it is an offence. Now the focus is on avoiding #2 but in the process he might fall into #1. Wether the UNP regime will pursue these offences is a different matter.
Ultimately Sri Lanka’s borders were ridiculed.
October 2nd, 2019 at 6:45 pm
The Laws of a country are there to serve the people and the nation as a whole and not vice-versa. Granting of Dual Citizenship to Gotabhaya Rajapakse took place at a time of war and the President of the country needed the services of his brother to fulfil a highly confidential as well as critical position for the war effort. The nation of Sri Lanka is all privy to the role performed by Gotabhya in that position and the successful conclusion of a war effort which was deemed impossible even by all-knowing war pundits in Sri Lanka and abroad.
Even otherwise to my knowledge, a position in an administration does not go vacant due to the absence of the usual operator. At all times an administration exists in a country and continues – even during the transition period between two administrations!
What is termed, as “residual responsibility” remains at all times to continue unbroken the legitimacy of the State and to provide necessary services required of it. In this case, it is apparent that the President as the Head of the Cabinet and as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, at a time of great need has taken over that responsibility and acted quite correctly to enable him to fill the vacancy of the Secretary of Defence in the most appropriate and timely manner.
Moreover, the petitioners had nearly fifteen years to bring this matter before courts if indeed they genuinely thought that an infringement on the law of the land has taken place. To bring such an accusation at the cusp of an election to a popular leader can only be considered an act of malice and an attempt to deprive the voting public their democratic choice at the coming Presidential Election on 16 November this year.
These very same petitioners were so curiously silent when the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe (- appointed without a majority by a President who has now become a hateful court jester) unlawfully took over part of the Finance Ministry that included the Central Bank under his authority and robbed and pauperised an entire nation. This is in terms of direct losses in the Bond Market, creating immediate losses to investors in the Workers Provident Fund, to the NDB, the BOC and many other and raised interest rates in the banks leading to bankruptcies of vulnerable businesses and in general by raising the taxes of all citizens of Sri Lanka – VAT included.
It is now common knowledge how he went on to put in place a well-planned fraud on the people of Sri Lanka, now infamously called the Central Bank Bond Scam. As a part of this fraud, he also appointed a non-citizen to the position of the Governor of the Central Bank, Arjuna Mahendran who is now a fugitive before the law. Not only did they rob the Central Bank once in February 2015, the similar but more disastrous fraud was committed in March 2016 while still keeping the same Governor in charge of the Central Bank.
The NGO Dollar Wallahs know their time to make dollars is fast coming to an end and are doing their utmost to fulfil the wishes of their masters the traitorous murderous UNP and their masters – the Christian Western Powers!
October 3rd, 2019 at 7:04 am
These petitioners had ample time to bring these issues and sort out matters without waiting till the last minute. Therefore I believe they are bringing this at this moment to disrupt the due process available for majority of citizens to safeguard their heritage as well as their birth rights.
I believe the judges will not be swayed by the overtures of the interested western powers as well as the the politicos who carried out plunder of our national wealth for a very long time.
Let Gota win first.
October 3rd, 2019 at 5:41 pm
The Laws of a country are there to serve the people and the nation as a whole and not vice-versa. Granting of Dual Citizenship to Gotabhaya Rajapakse took place at a time of war and the President of the country needed the services of his brother to fulfil a highly confidential as well as critical position for the war effort. The nation of Sri Lanka is all privy to the role performed by Gotabhya in that position and the successful conclusion of a war effort which was deemed impossible even by all-knowing war pundits in Sri Lanka and abroad. This included the father of the former Air Forces Chief Gunatilleke who was himself an Air Forces Cheif. Winning the war over Racist Tamil Tiger Terrorists is a fait accompli – period!
Even otherwise to my knowledge, a position in an administration does not go vacant due to the absence of the usual operator. At all times an administration exists in a country – even during the transition period between two administrations!
What is termed, as “residual responsibility” remains at all times to continue the necessary services. In this case, it is apparent that the President as the Head of the Cabinet and as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces has taken over that responsibility and acted quite correctly to enable him to fill the vacancy of the Secretary of Defence in the most timely manner.
Moreover, the petitioners had nearly fifteen years to bring this matter before courts if indeed they genuinely thought that an infringement on the law of the land has taken place. To bring such an accusation at the cusp of an election to a popular leader can only be considered an act of malice and an attempt to deprive the voting public their democratic choice at the coming Presidential Election on 16 November this year.
These very same petitioners were so curiously silent when the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe (- appointed without a majority by a President who has now become a hateful court jester) unlawfully took over part of the Finance Ministry that included the Central Bank under his authority and robbed and pauperised an entire nation in terms of direct losses in the Bond Market, raised interest rates in the banks and in general all taxes.
It is now common knowledge how he went on to put in place a well-planned fraud on the people of Sri Lanka, now infamously called the Central Bank Bond Scam. As a part of this fraud, he also appointed a non-citizen to the position of the Governor of the Central Bank, Arjuna Mahendran who is now a fugitive before the law. Not only did they rob the Central Bank once in February 2015, the similar but more disastrous fraud was committed in March 2016 while still keeping the same Governor in charge of the Central Bank.
The NGO Dollar Wallahs know their time to make dollars is fast coming to an end and are doing their utmost to fulfil the wishes of their masters the traitorous murderous UNP and their masters – the Christian Western Powers!
October 4th, 2019 at 12:26 pm
I PREDICTED this CLEARCUT decision by the Supreme Court, assering that Mahinda as the Executive President of Sri Lanka had the FULL and COMPLETE AUTHORITY to grant dual-citizenship to Gotabhaya in the NATIONAL INTEREST as VINDICATED by Gota’s SUBSEQUENT PERDORMANE in office.
This EASY PREDICTION was made in opposition to various contrary arguments advanced by both Dilrook and Randeniyage in their ongoing quest to UNDERMINE Gota’s CANDIDACY for the Presidency of Sri Lanka!!
The Supreme Court DISMISEED OUT OF HAND without EXAMINATION of WITNESSES or ISSUING a TEMPORARY INJUNCTION, demonstrating with CRYSTAL CLARITY the lack of a BASIS IN FACT in the case filed before it.
ONCE AGAIN, the DESPARATE Yamapalanaya BITES THE DUST in its desperate effort to PREVENT Gota from DEMOLISHING ALL OTHER CANDIDATES at the Presidential hustings!
JAYAWEWA Deshapremini, Jayawewa! Apey Uthum Aaadaraneeya Maubima Deshapremi APEY ATHATA NAVATHATH LABENA BAWA SAHATHIKAI!!