The Supreme Court yesterday vacated all the interim orders issued in the controversial oil hedging cases as the government had failed to comply with its earlier orders.

The interim orders relate to the suspension of Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) Chairman Asantha de Mel, CPC Deputy General Manager (Finance) Lalith Karunaratne, the CPC foreign exchange payments due to five commercial banks and fuel pricing.

The Court said that the executive had not complied with the interim order of Court, to reduce the price of petrol to Rs. 100 per litre.

Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva ruled that any decision made by the Court on a fundamental rights application must be complied with – in terms of the constitution – by the executive and then any complaints be made if it cannot be implemented. He added that the Court has given one month’s time to the Secretary of the Finance Ministry to show cause as to why it cannot bring down fuel prices to Rs.100 in accordance with the court ruling. But not a single written submission has been filed so far following the Court order.

The Chief Justice made these comments when the Deputy Solicitor General Sanjaya Rajaratnam told Court that the Executive was considering the Supreme Court order and a fresh fuel pricing formula was to be worked out to bring down the price of petrol. He appealed that the Court grant two weeks time for this purpose. The Supreme Court rejected the request and vacated all interim orders issued against the hedging deal.

Uditha Egalahewa appeared for petitioner W. P. Wegapitiya.

Viran Corea appeared for petitioner, Ravi Karunanayake (member of Parliament, UNP) and Ravi Jaywardene, Attorney-at-Law.