Sri Lanka court says opposition party leadership has no powers to discipline MPs crossed over to the government

The Colombo District Court today ruled that the major opposition United National Party (UNP) cannot conduct disciplinary inquiries against its legislators who supported the government.

However, the district judge Ranjith Wathupola said that the party could take disciplinary actions against the MPs on other charges.

The judge made this comment while considering a complaint lodged by crossed-over UNP MP Abdul Kader.

The petitioner has cited the UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe, the party secretary, and the working committee as respondents.

The judge extended the injunction against the UNP leadership taking disciplinary action against the complainant until January 11.