The Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.

¶ 02 Hon. Deputy Chairperson of Committees, this morning the Supreme Court issued a judgment convicting the former Controller General of Immigration and Emigration to three years’ imprisonment for contempt of court. That judgment followed a complaint we made regarding the delay in implementing an Interim Order in the cases filed by President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran, Hon. Patali Champika Ranawaka and myself, challenging the new e-visa scheme that was to be implemented without proper procurement. We pointed out that, due to a 16-year contract with a dubious company, the country would have lost nearly US dollars 3.4 billion in revenue. The main matter is fixed for argument on 20 November this year; today’s judgment pertained only to contempt.

¶ 03 This is an abject lesson for public officials who carry out orders without assessing the implications in matters of fraud. We also showed that deliberate delay in implementing the Interim Order could have caused an additional loss of about US dollars 800 million. The court considered various matters, including the respondent’s failure to show remorse and his delayed plea of guilt. The court also referred to the law on contempt of court, which has no statutory upper limit, and ruled that the upper limit for contempt of the Supreme Court should be seven years’ rigorous imprisonment. The respondent was found guilty and sentenced to three years, with the two years spent on remand taken into account.