The United National Party (UNP) yesterday (21) filed a fundamental rights (FR) case (Case No. SC/FR/133/2020) at the Supreme Court (SC) challenging the indefinite dissolution of the eighth Parliament of Sri Lanka. The petition was filed by UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam. In the petition to the SC, the UNP General Secretary stated that the Election Commission (EC) had announced the date of the parliamentary election for the ninth Parliament of Sri Lanka for 20 June and added that this date exceeds the obligatory three-month period envisaged in Article 70 (5) of the Constitution. Article 70 (5) states that the new parliament of Sri Lanka must meet on a date no later than three months after the dissolution of the existing parliament. Since the eighth Parliament of Sri Lanka was dissolved on 2 March 2020, the three-month period will lapse on 2 June 2020. The petition has gone on to state that post 2 June 2020, the “Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers will also cease to hold office as the Constitution does not contemplate the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers holding office indefinitely without a free and fair parliamentary election being held within the compulsory time limit of three months specified in the Constitution”. The petition has also stated that the President's refusal to reconvene the eighth Parliament, and thereby allow a lapse of more than three months without a sitting parliament, means he has failed in his mandatory duty imposed on him by Article 33 (1) (a) of the Constitution. The petition has requested the court to render the President’s proclamation dissolving Parliament “null and void and of no force or effect in law”, and to recognise that the eighth Parliament is legally empowered to function from 3 June 2020, according to the Standing Orders of Parliament.