The Supreme Court today directed authorities not to take steps to deport Frontline Socialists Party (FSP) central committee member Premakumar ‘Kumar’ Gunaratnam, until February 13.

The judge-bench chaired by Chief Justice K. Sripavan issued the instructions to immigration authorities when a petition filed by the FSP was taken up for hearing this morning.

The petition was filed seeking a court order against an attempt to arrest and deport Gunaratnam, terming it as ‘illegal’.

After considering the fact presented before the court, the judge bench instructed immigration authorities to refrain from deporting the individual until February 13 and also ordered the Controller General of Immigration and Emigration to appear before the court and give a testimony on the said date.

Gunaratnam, a former JVP leader and political activist in Sri Lanka who later became an Australian citizen, had arrived in Sri Lanka on January 01, ahead of the Presidential Election.

According to reports, Gunaratnam had arrived in the island on a 30-day tourist visa which expired on January 31 while the Department of Immigration and Emigration had sought his arrest for visa violations.

He was summoned twice by the Department of Immigration to record statements about his involvement in local politics.

Gunaratnam, along with several other JVP dissidents, formed the Frontline Socialists Party in April, 2012.

In the same month, Gunaratnam who held a passport in the name of Noel Mudalige was fined for overstaying in the country and deported.

The FSP recently held a protest near the Fort Railway station demanding the political rights to its Central Committee Member Kumar Gunaratnam and also demanding the release of political prisoners.