In the wake of the Attorney General (AG) refusing to appear for the Election Commission (EC) and its members in the fundamental rights (FR) cases before the Supreme Court (SC), the EC had decided to hire private lawyers to represent individual members, The Morning learnt. The issue of litigation was discussed at the EC meeting yesterday (12). A member of the EC, Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole, had already hired a private lawyer to represent him at court. However, the final decision about the other two members has not been finalised. Speaking to The Morning, Prof. Hoole stressed that he was opposed to the decision of letting the AG represent the Commission, which is an independent party in the cases at court. The petitions challenging the election date were taken up on Monday (11) before the three-member SC bench comprising Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, Justice Murdhu Fernando, and Justice S. Thurairajah. Representatives of the AG’s Department informed the court on Monday that the AG would represent only respondents named in the petition, the President, the AG, and the Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe. The petitions were fixed for support on 18 and 19 May. Seven parties including Attorney-at-Law Charitha Gunaratne, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), journalist Victor Ivan, and Ranjith Madduma Bandara of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SBJ) have filed FR petitions challenging the election date. Attempts to contact EC Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya were futile.