The Colombo District Court today (June 09) issued an enjoining order preventing the members of Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) from disrupting the continuous supply of electricity to the public by engaging in trade union actions.

The order was issued by Colombo District Judge Purnima Paranagama after taking into consideration a complaint lodged by the Ceylon Electricity Board.

When the case was taken up today, President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva, with Attorneys-at-Law Ruwantha Cooray and Namiq Nafath instructed by Sanath Wijewardena appeared on behalf of the CEB.

Meanwhile, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a Gazette Extraordinary last night declaring the supply of electricity an essential service.

The communiqué was published by President by virtue of the powers vested in him in terms of Section 2 of the Essential Public Services Act, No. 61 of 1979.

It came after several trade unions including the CEBEU decided to go on strike from midnight yesterday in protest of amendments to the Electricity Act.

The trade unions had warned that there would be an island-wide power outage today by 8.00 a.m. due to the strike.

However, they called off their trade union action following a discussion with the President last night.

Although the strike was called off, several parts of the island reportedly had experienced power outages this morning.