COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Monday declared the temporary merger of the northern and eastern provinces, effected in 1987 and extended annually, "null and void and illegal."

A five-member Bench of the court, headed by Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, gave the ruling on a petition filed by three Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) members.

It said the President had no powers to effect a merger of provinces under Emergency Regulation, and only Parliament could decide on the subject.

The court referred to the two conditions laid by the 1987 India-Sri Lanka Accord before considering merger — cessation of hostilities and laying down of arms by militant groups. It said the President went ahead with the merger, though the conditions were not met with after the LTTE violated ceasefire.

The judges, invoking "equal protection of law," said unlike the other seven provinces in the island nation, voters of the merged provinces had been deprived of their right to vote for the Provincial Council. There had been no election to a council in the northeast since 1988. The court said material provided by the petitioners resulted in "volumes of material to establish the divisions that existed in historic times and that the eastern province was part of the Kandyan Kingdom at the time of British conquest."

The petitioners said the merger would result in the "Muslim and Sinhala communities being permanently subjugated to a minority." The situation would exacerbate "ethnic cleansing," they said.

Political reaction

Mainstream political parties were cautious in their reactions to the verdict.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's office said it would study it in "detail." Tamil parties wanted the Government to consider a Constitutional amendment to provide for a northeastern province as a unit under devolution.

Jubilant JVP supporters burst crackers outside the court building and its leaders posed before television cameras.

The September 12 Brussels Declaration of the Co-Chairs of Sri Lanka, representing 58 donor countries, had a reference to the de-merger campaign and cautioned against any hasty moves.

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