The Supreme Court has dismissed two petitions filed against Finance Ministry’s Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana over contempt of court.

A five-member judge bench presided over by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya had sat for the hearing on Tuesday (Nov.14).

The petitions had been put forward by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara and National People’s Power (NPP) MP Vijitha Herath.

They alleged that Siriwardana had failed to comply with an interim order delivered by a 3-member Supreme Court judge bench on March 03, preventing the Finance Ministry’s Secretary from withholding the 2023 budgetary allocations for the Local Government (LG) election.

The interim order in question had been issued after taking into consideration a fundamental rights (FR) petition filed against the repeated postponement of LG polls.

Presenting preliminary objections in respect of the two petitions, the Finance Ministry’s Secretary and the Attorney General had pointed out that this is a matter concerning public finance. They explained that the judiciary is not authorized to intervene in matters concerning public finance, as it falls within the purview of the parliament.

As such, the Attorney General and the Finance Secretary had requested the Supreme Court to dismiss the two petitions.

Accepting the preliminary objections, the judge bench ordered that the two petitions be dismissed.