FR petition filed against Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring deal

A fundamental rights petition has been submitted before the Supreme Court requesting the court to issue an order declaring that the government’s decision to restructure the debt associated with Sri Lanka’s international sovereign bonds has violated the basic human rights of the citizens.

The petition has been filed by the former convenor of the Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF), Wasantha Mudalige.

The Minister of Finance, the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and others have been named as respondents in the petition.

The petitioner claims that the interest rate of the debt related to international sovereign bonds had initially been between 5% and 7% and that under the debt restructuring program, the government has increased this to 8.2% and then reduced to 7.4%.

The petition further alleged that as a result of this, the debt which is required to be repaid for the international sovereign bonds has increased from USD 16.4 billion to USD 19.1 billion and that this has put a huge economic burden on the Sri Lankan people.

Accordingly, the petitioner has requested that a decision be delivered declaring that the basic human rights of the people are being violated through the relevant debt restructuring program.