The Supreme Court has concluded hearings on the fundamental rights petition filed by former Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillayan, challenging his arrest and detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Oral submissions were completed on Tuesday (02), after which the court announced that delivery of judgment would be postponed to a later date, Newswire reported. The bench did not fix a date for the order.
Pillayan’s petition, filed in May 2025, seeks Rs.100 million in damages and a declaration that his fundamental rights were violated by the PTA arrest and detention regime. In April 2026, the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court remanded him pending the Attorney General’s recommendations on the 2006 disappearance and killing of Eastern University Vice Chancellor Professor S. Raveendranath, in which Pillayan has reportedly confessed to involvement.
The Supreme Court judgment, when delivered, will be the apex bench’s first ruling on the constitutionality of the PTA’s application to Pillayan’s case — which has implications beyond his personal situation given the criminal proceedings on the Eastern University murder are continuing in parallel.
The case has intersected with national politics. SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa confirmed visiting Pillayan in prison ahead of the Eastern PC election, with the SLPP-TMVP relationship a recurring undercurrent. The CID separately raised alleged unrecorded prison meetings between Pillayan and academic Rohan Gunaratne as part of its probe into Easter attack-era contacts.
Pillayan, leader of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), headed the Eastern Province between 2008 and 2012. He has been in detention since his rearrest in 2025 over the 2006 Eastern University case.
