Parliamentarian Channa Jayasumana has refuted allegations of forcibly occupying the official residence allocated to him during his tenure as the Health Minister of Sri Lanka.
The clarification comes after Colombo Additional Magistrate Manjula Ratnayake yesterday (28) issued an order to evict the former Health Minister from the official residence.
The court order was issued after taking up for consideration the case filed before the Court by the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration.
The Ministry Secretary informed the Court that the former minister remains in the official residence even after resigning from the post of Minister and asked that an order be given asking him to vacate it.
Responding to the allegations, Prof. Channa Jayasumana stated that he was residing at the official residence based on a decision of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
Issuing a statement, Prof. Jayasumana stated that following the May 09th unrest in Sri Lanka in 2022 during which several government ministers’ houses were attacked the HRCSL took a decision allowing the affected ministers to continue to reside in their allocated official residences.
Prof. Jayasumana stated that he had also settled all utility and other bills during his occupancy of the official residence during the said period.
Stating that he was unaware of the legal measures taken by the Public Administration Ministry, Prof. Jayasumana said that he would take steps to file a motion to inform the court of the HRCSL decision. (NewsWire)