Lanka's apex court allows to appeal against eviction of Tamils

Colombo, July 26 (UNI) Sri Lanka's Supreme Court today granted leave to proceed to an appeal challenging the eviction of nearly 400 ethnic minority Tamils from Colombo by the police and government security forces as a part of tightening the security measures in the capital city, legal sources here said.

"Granting the leave to proceed, the Supreme Court today fixed for November 28 a formal hearing of the fundamental rights case against the eviction of few hundreds of Tamils from Colombo," the sources said, adding that similar operations by security forces will not be carried out till then.

According to the sources, the Supreme Court has given the leave to proceed to this case based on Article 11 and 12 which say: " No person shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" and "all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of law".

The fundamental rights case was filed by the independent research think-tank, the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA).

President Rajapakse's government has already expressed 'regret' to the ethnic minority Tamils for evicting them from the budget-lodges in the capital city and promised them that it would not happen again.

UNI