Responding to recent remarks of the Minister of Higher Education and Cultural Affairs Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe on the Supreme Court’s (SC) decision to grant registration to the SAITM graduate petitioner, Dr. Neville Fernando, the Chairman of SAITM, says that the Minister is trying to seek cheap publicity.
In a letter to the Sunday Observer, Dr. Fernando urged Minister Wijedasa should read the final judgement by two eminent Judges which states, “By pursuing this litigation, the SLMC has unnecessarily delayed the petitioner obtaining provisional registration and thereby caused considerable expenses in addition to causing grave prejudice to the petitioner”.
“As a senior lawyer, Wijeyadasa should not attempt to lower the esteem with which the people of Sri Lanka hold the decisions of the Supreme Court, merely to obtain cheap publicity,” says Dr. Fernando in letter.
“I was under the impression that Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was an educated eminent lawyer; but now I find that he is a Godaperekadoruwa when he says ‘that SAITM MBBS has been condemned by the Court of Public Opinion’,” he further says in the letter.
Dr. Fernando also questions whether Dr. Rajapakshe is a President’s Counsel who practices in the Court of Public Opinion or in the Supreme Court.
Speaking to the Sunday Observer three weeks ago, the Minister said that the 83 SAITM students who have passed out, can either follow the SC decision and obtain provisional registration with the SLMC or else they will have to follow the KDU process.