• The petitioners are seeking an order directing the AG to prosecute all State officials who have willfully failed to perform their statutory and regulatory duties

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda 

The Supreme Court yesterday granted leave to proceed with a Fundamental Rights petition filed in connection with the X-Press Pearl disaster. 

Accordingly, the Supreme Court two-judge-bench comprising Justice Vijith Malalgoda and Justice Mahinda Samayawardhena fixed the petition for argument on May 24.

This petition had been filed by the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) Executive Director Hemantha Withanage and two others including a traditional fisherman living in Negombo.

The petitioners are seeking an order directing the authorities to conduct an independent and impartial investigation into the fire on MV X-Press Pearl vessel.

Minister of Ports and Shipping Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Marine Environment Protection Authority, Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Chairman of Port Authority General (Retd) Daya Ratnayake, Director General of Merchant Shipping A.W. Seneviratne, Central Environmental Authority, State Minister Nalaka Godahewa, Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, X-Press Feeders Company - Sea Consortium Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, the Attorney General and several others were named as respondents in the petition.

The petitioners are further seeking an order directing the Attorney General to prosecute all State officials who have willfully failed to perform their statutory and regulatory duties.

The petitioners are also seeking an order directing X-Press Feeders Company (represented by its local Agent Sea Consortium Lanka (Pvt) Ltd to pay compensation to the environmental damage and pollution caused to the marine and coastal ecology of Sri Lanka and the atmosphere under the ‘Polluters Pay Principle’. 

They state that the blazing ship and the chemical spill and plastic pellets have already caused untold, irreversible and irremediable damage to Sri Lanka’s marine ecosystem and pristine beaches, including popular tourist destinations, which beaches are thickly coated in plastic pellets. These plastic pellets used to make plastic bags are fatal to marine life and dead sea turtles and fish have already begun washing ashore and fears are arising of an unprecedented catastrophe.

On May 20, 2021, the, ‘MV X-Press Pearl’ which was enroute from the Indian port of Hazira to Singapore, with 1,486 containers caught fire as it waited to enter Colombo harbour and remained anchored some 9.5 nautical miles North West of Colombo waiting to enter the port, stated the petitioners.

They state that apart from the 325 metric tonnes of bunker oil, the vessel was loaded with 1,486 containers carrying 25 tonnes of hazardous Nitric Acid, caustic soda, Sodium Methylate, plastic, lead ingots, lubricant oil, quick lime and highly reactive and inflammable chemicals such as Sodium Methodoxide, High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) “Lotrene”, Vinyl Acetate, Methanol, bright yellow sulphur, urea, cosmetics etc.

Petitioners also state that Sri Lanka is in an enviable location in the Indian Ocean. The busy East-West shipping route passes just six to ten nautical miles south of the island. More than 60,000 ships ply this route annually, carrying two-thirds of the world’s oil and half of all container shipments. 
The petition had been filed through senior counsel Ravindranath Dabare and Nimmi Sanjeewani.

• Petitioners also state that Sri Lanka is in an enviable location in the Indian Ocean