COLOMBO: A three-member Supreme Court bench in Sri Lanka on Wednesday ruled that the imposition of a state of emergency in July 2022 to quell months of public protests was a violation of fundamental rights.
Three petitions were filed by civil society organisations in August 2022, claiming that the then acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe's decision on July 18, 2022 to declare a state of emergency violated constitutional rights.
In April 2022, the island nation declared its first-ever sovereign default since gaining Independence from Britain in 1948. The unprecedented financial crisis led the then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to quit office in 2022 amid civil unrest.
Mass protests were held across the country as people suffered long queues for fuel and essential items amid a severe foreign exchange shortage.
On July 9, Rajapaksa fled the country and later resigned, paving the way for Wickremesinghe, then prime minister, to become acting president.
On July 18, Wickremesinghe ordered the removal of protestors occupying the entry gate of the presidential secretariat under emergency regulations.
The petitioners argued that there were no valid grounds for the declaration and that it aimed to suppress dissent. The court ruled 2-1 in favour of the petitioners and ordered the state to pay legal costs.