• Serves 14-day Letter of Demand 
• AG blamed for non-indicting vessel owners, operators 
• CEJ Bill of Costs submitted in Jan
• No response or reimbursement from AG's Dept

The Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) organisation served a 14-day Letter of Demand (LoD) on Attorney General (AG), President’s Counsel Parinda Ranasinghe Junior, warning of legal proceedings, including contempt of court action, over the alleged failure to comply with Supreme Court (SC) directives arising from the MV X-Press Pearl disaster.

The letter was dispatched by registered post on 7 November by attorney-at-law Nilmal Wickramasinghe on behalf of the CEJ and its Executive Director, Hemantha Withanage. It stated that the AG's Department had not complied with orders issued by a five-Judge Divisional Bench of the SC more than 15 months earlier. 

The notice followed the SC's judgement of 24 July of last year (2025) in the Fundamental Rights (FR) Application SC/FR/168/2021 and connected matters (SC/FR/176/2021, SC/FR/184/2021 and SC/FR/277/2021). In paragraphs 895 and 896, the Bench found that the AG had failed to perform his statutory function of indicting the owners and operators of the vessel for criminal liability under Section 26(a) of the Marine Pollution Prevention Act. It also held that the decision to file civil proceedings against the X-Press Pearl group of companies in a Singapore court, rather than in the High Court of Sri Lanka exercising admiralty jurisdiction, was unreasonable, irrational and arbitrary. The Court ruled that these failures infringed the FR guaranteed under Article 12(1) of the Constitution. Paragraph 897 of the judgement laid down time-bound directions. 

According to the legal notice, the AG did not comply with those in sub-paragraphs (ix), (x), (xii), (xiii), (xiv) and (xv). These required him to advise the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to investigate all disclosed offences under the Penal Code and environmental laws, conclude the investigations within three months and consider indictments, to re-appraise materials collected by the CID, the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) and other law enforcement agencies, and to submit progress reports to the SC every three months. 

The AG was also directed to conduct a gap analysis of international maritime law against domestic standards and advise the Government on legislative changes, to carry out a study with the MEPA and the Coast Conservation Authority on amending the Marine Pollution Prevention Act and the Coast Conservation Act, and to advise the CID to ensure that persons liable for compensation or prosecution, including representatives of the Sea Consortium Lanka (Private) Limited, remain available in Sri Lanka. Paragraph 897(xix) further entitled the petitioners to recover actual litigation costs from the AG, who was in turn authorised to claim reimbursement from the MV X-Press Pearl Compensation Commission. 

The CEJ submitted a Bill of Costs on 16 January. The notice stated that the AG's Department had neither responded nor reimbursed the expenses, leaving public interest litigants to bear the financial burden. The letter requested, within 14 days of receipt, a detailed written response on all steps taken to comply with the directives, an explanation for any failure or delay, and the full consideration and immediate settlement of the Bill of Costs. The petitioners reserved the right to initiate proceedings in a competent court, including seeking writs to compel the performance of public duties and filing contempt of court actions, without further notice, should the AG fail to comply within the stipulated period, the LOD said.