Colombo: A Sri Lankan court on Monday barred Mahinda Rajapaksa from acting as Prime Minister, further aggravating constitutional crisis in the island nation.
This comes as a major setback to President Maithripala Sirisena who had installed his former rival in place of Ranil Wickremesinghe in a controversial decision last month.
The Court of Appeal temporary halted Rajapaksa and his Cabinet from functioning in their positions in response to a petition filed by 122 legislators against the disputed government.
The court set the hearing of the case for December 12 and 13. The political crisis has crippled the government for more than a month.
As many as 122 parliamentarians of Wickremesinghe’s United National Party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Tamil National Alliance last month filed a petition in the Court of Appeal challenging Rajapaksa’s authority as the Prime Minister.
“We do not agree with the decision given by the Appeals Court as Constitutional matters are finally decided by the Supreme Court. We will be filing an appeal tomorrow,” Rajapaksa tweeted.
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