Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa vs Lasantha Alagiyawanna and others – CA/RII/53/2024-2024

Brief
The case between the petitioner (03rd Defendant) and respondents (including the 1st and 2nd Defendants and officials of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party—SLFP) concerned the legality of internal party proceedings regarding the appointment of an Acting Chairman. The dispute raised whether meetings convened by the “DeshapalanaMandalaya” (politburo) and the subsequent Executive Committee (VidhayakaSabhawa) followed constitutional procedures as stipulated in the party’s governing documents; whether the appointment of the 2nd Defendant as Acting Chairman was legally valid; and the proper channel and scope of the remedy of restitutio in integrum (and revision), specifically whether the petition could be entertained at appellate level before recourse to the original court. It was held that the pe