by Chitra Weerarathne

The store keeper of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, Raja Rata Sevaya, an activist of the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya, B. M. S. Bandaranayake of Kekirawe, has complained to the Supreme Court, in a Fundamental Rights violation plea, that he had been given an arbitrary re-transfer to the SLBC Head Office in Colombo, having served at the Raja Rata Sevaya for only three weeks.

The petition said that he was earlier serving in Colombo as the store keeper. He had been transferred to serve at the Raja Rata Sevaya as store-keeper, on March 2, 2001. He had taken up duties there. But on March 24, 2001, much to his surprise and without any prior intimation, Mr. Gamini Kalubowila, Director of the SLBC, had informed the petitioner by letter, that the petitioner is transferred back to Colombo with effect from April 24, 2001. The petitioner had appealed against this re-transfer, but it had failed.

The petition said that the transfer order made on March 24, transferring the petitioner back to Colombo, from April 24, is arbitrary, capricious and done for collateral purposes.

The petition had said that the petitioner is a resident of Kekirawe, and that the petitioner’s father is an acute diabetic, whose condition is deteriorating day by day. When the petitioner works in Colombo, he has to travel to and from, Anuradhapura almost daily.

The petition, had also said that the petitioner has an unblemished service record and that he had never been subjected to a disciplinary inquiry. When he took up duties at Anuradhapura, he expected to stay there for a few years. He could see no reason for a transfer back to Colombo, from his hometown, where his father’s health condition is deteriorating rapidly and he needed to attend to his sick father.

The petition requested the Supreme Court to suspend the re-transfer order, declare it null and void, and further to declare that the petitioner had been subjected to arbitrary treatment by the SLBC and its management.

Among the respondents are, the SLBC, its Director General K. Paranavitharana, the Chairman Janadasa Peiris and five others of the management of the SLBC.

This application will be supported in court shortly.