The Supreme Court today dismissed without hearing a petition filed by Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauf Hakeem and General Secretary Nizam Kariapper, Ada Derana reported.
The petitioners had sought an order directing the National Election Commission to inform Parliament that they are members of the SLMC. After considering the petition, the court ordered that it be dismissed without consideration of its merits.
The court did not state reasons for the dismissal. The order leaves unresolved the question the petition was attempting to settle: how Hakeem and Kariapper are to be formally identified in Parliament. Both were elected at the November 2024 general election.
The SLMC has been part of fluid alliance arrangements in the post-2024 parliament, and disputes over party-affiliation labels in the parliamentary record have surfaced in other minority-party blocs as well. The petition route appears to have been an attempt to compel the Election Commission to update Parliament’s roll directly rather than through party-internal channels.
Source: Ada Derana.
