The Court of Appeal on Tuesday (4) set aside a previous Colombo High Court order acquitting former Minister Johnston Fernando and other accused in the alleged Sathosa corruption cases, directing that all seven cases be retried from the beginning.
A five-judge bench comprising Justices P. Kumararatnam, Damith Thotawatta, K.M.S. Dissanayake, K.P. Fernando and Annalingam Premashankar ordered that the cases against Fernando, former Sathosa Chairman Eraj Fernando and former Acting Director Mohamed Shakir be heard afresh.
The accused had been indicted under Section 70 of the Bribery Act over allegations that Sathosa employees were removed from their official duties and assigned to political work while continuing to receive salaries and overtime payments from public funds.
On 19 May 2023, the Colombo High Court acquitted the accused after upholding a preliminary objection by the defence, which argued that the investigations and prosecutions were invalid because they did not bear the signatures of all three members of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).
However, delivering its ruling on a revision application filed by the Director General of the Bribery Commission, the Court of Appeal held that Section 2(8) of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption Act of 1994 does not require all three commissioners to act jointly when exercising the Commission’s powers.
The bench clarified that an individual commissioner may exercise the Commission’s powers separately, and such actions are deemed to be acts of the Commission itself.
The Court further ruled that the High Court has no jurisdiction to question the validity of an indictment filed before it, stating that such issues can only be determined by a superior court.
The Court also observed that requiring the signatures of all three commissioners for every investigation and prosecution would unnecessarily delay the administration of justice.
