The Court of Appeal on Wednesday (28 Feb.) issued an interim order suspending all measures regarding the divestiture of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and Lanka Hospitals until 12 March.

The relevant order was issued by Appellate Court Judge D. N. Samarakoon upon consideration of a writ petition filed by Lycamobile SARL and Pettigo Comércio Internacional on behalf of SLT and another filed by Lyca Leasing Holding Limited and HIMS International on behalf of Lanka Hospitals.

The petitioning companies claimed that despite having submitted all required documents to the respondents for the transfer of 50.23% state-owned shares in SLT and 51.34% shares in Lanka Hospitals, the Cabinet sub-committee assigned to the restructuring of State-Owned Enterprises rejected the said applications for no apparent reason.

Thus, the companies noted that the committee’s decision to reject their applications is not only arbitrary and unfair, but also unlawful, given that they had fulfilled all pre-requisites.

Upon consideration of these facts, Appellate Court Judge D. N. Samarakoon issued a notice for the respondents named in the petitions, including President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies, and State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe, members of the Cabinet sub-committee appointed for the restructuring of public enterprises and the Attorney General, to appear before the court on 12 March to present their submissions.