Two petitions alleging contempt of court against Mahinda Siriwardana, the secretary of the Finance Ministry, were dismissed by the Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, Nov. 14, a five-member court bench led by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya convened for the hearing.
MP Vijitha Herath of the National People’s Power (NPP) and General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) have submitted the petitions.
They claimed that Siriwardana had disregarded an interim ruling issued on March 3 by a three-judge Supreme Court bench, which stopped the Secretary of the Finance Ministry from withholding the budgetary allotments for the Local Government (LG) election in 2023.
After considering a fundamental rights (FR) appeal against the repeated postponements of LG votes, the interim order in question was issued.
