The Bench comprising Chief Justice Shirani A.bandaranayake, Justices P.a.ratnayake and Suresh Chandra extended to November 23 the undertaking given by the Deputy Solicitor General on October 19 that no interview would be held until this matter is considered for leave to proceed by this Court.

When the right petition of aggrieved was taken up before the Supreme Court yesterday for support, the Deputy Solicitor General moved for time to obtain instruction from the Public Service Commission(psc).

Dr Sujatha Senaratne in her petition filed by G.g.arulpragasam bemoans for the impugned dogmatic refusal to accept her application merely seeking candidacy only for the post of Director, Sri Lanka National Hospital.

Sanjeeva Jayawardena with Rajeev Amarasuriya instructed appeared for the Petitioners. Romesh de Silva PC appeared for the PSC. Deputy Solicitor General Indikademuni de Silva appeared for the Attorney General.

Petitioner cited Health Ministry Secretary Dr Ravindra Ruberu, Director General of Health Services Dr U.ajith Mendis and Members of the Public Service Commission as well as the Attorney General as Respondents.

Petitioner Dr Sujatha Senaratne is presently the Deputy Director of the Sri Lanka National Hospital. She states she left Sri Lanka on May 8, 2011 for training in the UK and upon her successful completion of the said training, returned to the Island on June 20, 2011.

She aggrieves she returned to the National Hospital on June 20, 2011 and found that the post of the Director of the National Hospital had been advertised in her absence and also that the closing date had passed before the circular even reached her office

She also found that just few days before her return, her office had received the General Circular dated April 25, 2011 on June 12 June 2011 by which the post of the Director of the National Hospital had been advertised whereas the closing date of the application was May 25, 2011 which was the date before her office had even received the said Circular.

She states the said post of the Director had been advertised unexpectedly and suddenly, due to the unexpected retirement of Dr Hector Weerasinghe, upon his appointment as the Consul General of Sri Lanka in Los Angeles, even though he had been granted an extension of service, and was expected to continue in the post till December 2011.

She alleges she had been effectively precluded from applying for the said post due to no fault of hers and that collateral considerations of those with vested interests, have precluded her, through well engineered contrivances, from applying for the said post, before the closing date.

Source: Daily Mirror - Sri Lanka