Supreme Court issues Stay Order against SEC

• Grants leave to proceed on FR application filed by 132 employees 
• Court also grants interim relief suspending termination and allowing petitioners to return to work

The Supreme Court yesterday granted leave to proceed on a Fundamental Rights application filed by 132 people who were employed under an organisation administrated by the State Engineering Corporation (SEC). 

Court granted approval to proceed under Articles 12(1), 12(2) and 14(1) (g) of the Constitution to a Fundamental Rights application filed by 132 persons who were unlawfully terminated from their employment in National Equipment and Machinery Organisation (NEMO), which is an organisation established and administered under the SEC.

The Supreme Court also granted interim relief to the Petitioners by suspending their termination allowing the Petitioners to return to work at NEMO and ordered NEMO to continue to pay the salaries and allowance of the Petitioners. 

In their Petition, Petitioners stated, inter alia, that the Petitioners were appointed to various positions on contract and casual basis from 2016 to 2017 and that the Petitioners had been serving at NEMO for a period of almost four years. The Petitioners further stated that due to their continuous service at NEMO, they were granted permanent appointments with effect from 2 October 2019 in accordance with the Public Administration Circular No. 29/2019 dated 18 September 2019, issued by the then Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs. 

Despite the Petitioners continuing to serve in their respective positions at NEMO thereafter, they received letters of terminations from the General Manager of NEMO dated 29 April 2020, arbitrarily terminating them from their services without citing any justifiable reason whatsoever.

In addition, it is stated in the Petition that the Elections Commissioner had directed the Chairman of NEMO to suspend the termination of the Petitioners until a detailed report is presented and an informed decision is made by the Elections Commissioner. 

The Petition states that the Petitioners had a legitimate expectation that they will be made permanent employees of NEMO in view of Circular 29/2019, and that their terminations were done unlawfully and in violation of their Fundamental Rights guaranteed by Article 12 and 14 of the Constitution. 

After hearing the submissions of the Counsels for the Petitioners and Respondents, the three judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justice Sisira de Abrew, Justice A.H.M.D Nawaz and Justice Achala Wengappuli granted interim relief to the Petitioners and fixed the matter for arguments on 07 July. 

President’s Counsel Farman Cassim with Attorneys-at-Law Charaka Jayaratne, Budwin Siriwardena, Mithun Imbulamure and Vinura Kularatne, instructed by Attorney-at-law Chamali Ranathunga, appeared on behalf of the Petitioners. Senior State Counsel Kanishka De Silva appeared on behalf of the Respondents.