The Court of Appeal will deliver on November 27 its decision on whether to grant leave to proceed with the writ petition filed by former State Intelligence Service director Major General (Retd.) Suresh Sallay, Hiru News reported on Friday.
The petition challenges the legality of his arrest and continued detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in connection with investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.
The order was made by a bench of Court of Appeal President Justice Rohantha Abeysuriya and Justice Priyantha Fernando, after oral submissions concluded on Friday following what Hiru described as a lengthy consideration of the facts. Reply submissions by President’s Counsel Sanjeewa Jayawardena, for Sallay, were completed at the sitting. The court directed the parties to file written submissions, if any, before 20 October.
The bench will rule on two things on November 27: whether leave to proceed is granted, and the requests for interim relief.
What is actually being decided
The hearing that ended on Friday was not about whether Sallay’s detention is lawful. It was about whether the court will hear that question at all.
Leave to proceed is the threshold stage of a writ application. The reason it has taken this long is on the record from the 3 September sitting that fixed Friday’s date: counsel for the sixth respondent, Rev. Fr. Rohan Silva, asked that the application be dismissed without leave to proceed being granted, arguing that the petitioner had failed to place the true facts before the court. That objection — first made when the petition was heard on July 27 and repeated in September — is what the bench must now resolve.
The interim relief element matters more immediately. Sallay has been in custody since 25 February, held under a 90-day detention order, the third in the case, issued on 25 August. On the ordinary run of those orders, that authority expires before the November date, and a fourth would be required to hold him to it.
Ten weeks
The gap between the close of submissions and the order is unusually long for a leave-stage ruling, and Hiru gives no reason for it. The written-submissions deadline of 20 October accounts for about five of the ten weeks; the remaining five are not explained.
It also sets the timetable against a separate track. The Colombo Fort Magistrate has been dealing with Sallay’s medical position, ordering a National Hospital report on his health on 2 September and, this month, issuing notice on the hospital’s director. Those proceedings continue independently of the writ.
Not reported
Hiru’s account does not say what Jayawardena argued in reply, whether the objection over the commission report annexed to the petition was resolved, or whether the request to add the current Director of the Criminal Investigation Department as a respondent was allowed. It does not say what interim relief is being sought, or whether a fresh detention order has been made or is expected before November 27.
Ada Derana also reported the order, but the site has been consistently unreachable to us and could not be verified. No other verified newsroom had carried Friday’s hearing at the time of writing.
Note on spelling: NewsFirst and the Daily Mirror render the name “Salley”; Ada Derana, Hiru and our earlier coverage use “Sallay”, the form followed here.
