Colombo, Mar 20: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed without a hearing the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s plea for restoring his security contingent.Rajapaksa, in January, had filed the fundamental rights petition seeking court intervention after the government slashed his security from over 350 personnel to just 60 in December last year.
In his petition, Rajapaksa claimed his life was under threat as a result of his action to end the three-decade-long armed campaign by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) for a separate Tamil homeland.
He had cited Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, the Cabinet and the defence establishment as respondents.
The legal step by the 80-year-old came in the midst of action by the government to remove him from his official residence.
Rajapaksa served as the President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015. The LTTE, which led a separatist war for a separate Tamil homeland, was crushed by the Lankan military in 2009 with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The government has also initiated steps to evict Rajapaksa from his official residence – he has not vacated his official residence yet despite pressure from the government — citing its policy of reducing public expenditure and curbing the privileges of former presidents.
While the government insists the measures are part of broader cost-cutting efforts, the opposition has criticised the actions as politically motivated, arguing that former presidents are legally entitled to certain privileges.