A writ application has been filed in the Court of Appeal seeking to quash the decision by prison authorities to remove the robes of the imprisoned Venerable Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, Hiru News reported.
The application was filed by Venerable Theeniyawala Palitha Thera.
What the petition asks for
The respondents named include the Commissioner General of Prisons, Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara, the Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, and Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs Minister Hiniduma Sunil Senevi, among others.
The petitioning monk argues that Article 9 of the Constitution places on the State the duty to protect and foster Buddhism, and that the prison authorities’ decision breaches prison regulations and runs contrary to Buddhist disciplinary codes.
He asks the court to issue a writ quashing the decision, and to quash any prison regulation or circular that compels such an action. The application also seeks an interim order restraining the respondents from removing the Thera’s robes.
A lay organisation weighs in
Separately, the ‘Rata Rakina Parapura’ organisation issued a media statement opposing the removal of the robes for court appearances, Hiru reported.
The group said that while court rulings must be enforced and Gnanasara Thera is not above the law, state institutions should not have unlimited power to insult a monk’s robes. It called for an immediate public explanation of the full legal and administrative basis for the decision, and for a published procedure governing how prisons and state bodies deal with Buddhist monks.
Where this sits
The robes dispute has been running for over a week. Senior prelates questioned the decision in early October, and the President subsequently appointed a committee to examine prison attire rules for ordained prisoners. This Court of Appeal writ is a separate track from a fundamental rights petition reported earlier in the week on the same subject.
Not reported
Hiru does not say when the Court of Appeal will take up the application or whether the interim order has been granted. It does not carry a response from the Department of Prisons, the Justice Ministry or the Buddhasasana Ministry, and does not state which prison regulation the petitioner says was breached. Both filings come from the same newsroom; no other verified outlet’s account of the writ was available at the time of writing.
Sources: Hiru News — writ application, Hiru News — organisation’s statement.
Update, 15 October: the court has a date, and it took a second bench to get there
The Court of Appeal has ordered that the petitions seeking to quash the prison authorities’ decision be called for consideration on 22 October, Hiru News reported on Thursday morning.
That answers the first question left open above — when the Court of Appeal would take up the application. It does not answer the second: no filing says whether the interim order restraining removal of the robes has been granted.
The petitions were taken up today before a bench of Justices Amal Ranaraja, Mahen Gopallawa and Priyantha Fernando, who, having considered the matters submitted, fixed the 22nd. Hiru also confirms the petitioners: Ven. Theeniyawala Palitha Thera and a group of monks — the same monk named above as the original applicant, now joined by others.
Why it is a three-judge bench and not the court’s president
A step between the filing and today’s sitting is not in the Hiru account. Ada Derana reported, under the headline “Appeals Court president recuses himself from hearing petitions over removal of Gnanasara Thero’s robe”, that President of the Court of Appeal Justice Rohantha Abeysooriya recused himself when the petitions were taken up on 14 October, and that a new three-judge bench was appointed as a result.
That bench is the one that sat today. Ada Derana has been unreachable from this desk for twenty-six consecutive days — the article returns HTTP 403 — so the report is noted here by headline and date and is not cited as a source; its contents could not be read beyond the headline. No verified outlet reachable from here has carried the recusal.
Read with the recusal, today’s order is less routine than it looks: the petitions have now been before the Court of Appeal three times in six days — filed on the 9th, listed and reassigned on the 14th, and called on the 15th for a hearing on the 22nd.
What has changed around the case meanwhile
The dispute has moved on two tracks since this article was written. A committee appointed by the President handed its interim report on prison regulations to the President’s Secretary on 14 October, recommending a new provision requiring prison authorities to consult the Department of Buddhist Affairs, and an amendment permitting monks to wear robes when taken outside prison premises. Separately, police have rejected as false a viral claim that a supporter of the Kandy–Colombo march for Gnanasara Thera’s release was attacked by a mob.
The executive’s review and the court’s petitions are now running in parallel toward the same subject, and no filing addresses whether a regulation change before 22 October would affect what the Court of Appeal is being asked to decide.
