… she never bothered to renew SL visa after its lapse in 2015

By Shamindra Ferdinando

A three-judge Supreme Court (SC) bench has declared that SJB National List MP and State Minister Diana Gamage is not legally qualified to hold a parliamentary seat. She is one of the seven National List MPs appointed after the 2020 general election.

The SC bench consisted of E. A.G.R. Amarasekara, K. Kumudini Wickremasinghe and Janak De Silva.

The judgment was delivered yesterday in respect of a petition filed by Oshala Herath, an unsuccessful UNP candidate at the last general election. Previously, social media activist Herath had served on the Yahapalana President Maithripala Sirisena’s media staff.

Gamage is the second lawmaker to be unseated in the current Parliament on the basis of an SC ruling.

SC unseated Nazeer Mohammed (SLMC/Batticaloa district) late last year over him voting for the government, contrary to a decision taken by his party to oppose the 2021 Budget. However, the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government recently rewarded him with the post of Governor, North Western Province.

Within hours after the SC declaration, the SJB announced that Mujibur Rahuman would be appointed to fill the National List vacancy created by Gamage’s ouster. Colombo District MP Rahuman resigned in January 2023 to contest as the SJB’s mayoral candidate in Colombo though President Ranil Wickremesinghe put off the local government poll indefinitely claiming the country had no money to hold elections.

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) MP Udaya Gammanpila said that he expected the issue of dual citizens in Parliament receiving fresh public attention in the wake of the SC ruling.

Attorney-at-law Gammanpila said that in terms of the Right to Information Act (RTI) he had sought the names of those who held dual citizenship from the Immigration Controller. That request was made in late 2018 and the Controller had claimed that they didn’t have a mechanism to find that out. The request was made before the Diana Gamage’ citizen issue came to light.

The SJB appointed Gamage as a National List MP in return for the transferring control of Ape Jathika Peramuna (AJP), a party run by she and her husband Senaka de Silva, one-time aide to the then General Sarath Fonseka, to the breakaway UNP faction, headed by Sajith Premadasa.

In November, last year, the Court of Appeal dismissed Oshla Herath’s petition with Nishshanka Bandula Karunaratne and the Judge of the Court of Appeal, Khema Swarnadhipa agreeing and the Court of Appeal Judge M. A. R. Marikkar giving a dissenting judgement.

Presiding judge Nishshanka Bandula Karunaratne is on record as having said that the petitioner, Oshala Herath, had submitted a petition based on a personal and hidden political agenda.

According to submissions made by Herath, before the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, at the time Diana Gamage was sworn in as an MP, she was a British citizen. The Court was provided with relevant details, including the numbers of her British passports.

In the previous Parliament, Galle District MP Geetha Kumarasinghe lost her seat following the Supreme Court ruling on the basis that she had been a dual citizen of Sri Lanka and Switzerland at the time of her election.

Soon after the SC ruling, Herath said that he really appreciated the reportage of the Diana affair in a section of the press, particularly The Island over the past couple of years. He said that there had been claims of some MPs in the current Parliament having dual citizenship. But, in Diana Gamage’s case, she never bothered to obtain Sri Lankan citizenship and simply pretended she had it while being a British citizen. The courts were told that Diana Gamage used a British passport, bearing number 521398876. They were also informed that a Sri Lankan visa, issued to Diana Gamage, lapsed on 16 July, 2015, and, thereafter, there was absolutely no evidence to suggest issuance of a new visa.

Diana Gamage had also received a diplomatic passport during this period, Herath said, pointing out that in spite of this controversy, President Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed her as State Tourism Minister.

The enactment of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution should compel Parliament to take tangible measures to remove, not only dual citizens, but foreigners, as well, Herath said. Parliament couldn’t continue to turn a blind eye to the issue, particularly against the backdrop of the reportage of the British passport matter and the outcome of it.