The South Asian nation has been in crisis since President Maithripala Sirisena replaced Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with Rajapaksa in October, then issued an order dissolving parliament and called for a general election. Sirisena’s decisions have prompted legal challenges and on Friday the Appeal Court began hearing a petition by 122 legislators challenging Rajapaksa’s authority to hold office after he lost two no-confidence votes last month. “The damage that will be posed by temporarily restraining a lawful cabinet of ministers from functioning would be…outweighed by the damage that would be caused by allowing a set of persons who are not entitled in law to function as the prime minister or the cabinet of ministers,” judge Preethipadhman Surasena said.
