British instagrammer’s FR petition against her deportation dismissed

• The Department of Immigration and Emigration had decided to  terminate the visa issued to Fraser for violating visa conditions and  had informed her to leave the country by 15th of August, 2022 

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda   

A Fundamental Rights petition filed by British woman  instagrammer Kayleigh Fraser challenging the Sri Lankan authorities’  decision to deport her from Sri Lanka has been dismissed by the Supreme  Court with costs fixed at Rs.500,000.  

Kayleigh Fraser who had been documenting Sri Lanka’s  anti-government protests on social media last year filed this petition  seeking an order to quash the decision of the Department of Immigration  and Emigration to deport her in an arbitrary manner.  

The Supreme Court three-judge bench headed by Justice Murdu  Fernando decided to dismiss the petition at the beginning after taking  into consideration the preliminary objections raised by the Attorney  General.  
The Attorney General appearing for the Controller General  of Immigration raised preliminary objections on the following grounds; the  application does not fall within the ambit of executive or  administrative action; this application is vexatious and designed to  embarrass the court; there is no proper affidavit before court and the  Petitioner has suppressed material facts and misrepresented facts to  court.  

“The learned counsel for the Petitioner did not respond to  the allegation of suppression of material pertaining to SC/FR/299/2022  in his submissions before us. However, he was gracious enough to accept  that the Petitioner was in Sri Lanka not on a resident visa as pleaded  in the petition but on a medical visa, which is clearly depicted in the  visa document X5 filed together with the petition. Hence, we do not wish  to examine the objection pertaining to suppression regarding the  category of visa any further,” Justice Murdu Fernando added.  
The Department of Immigration and Emigration had decided to  terminate the visa issued to Fraser for violating visa conditions and  had informed her to leave the country by 15th of August, 2022.   

On a previous occasion, the Court of Appeal had also dismissed the petitioner’s writ petition on the same legal grounds.   

Attorney-at-law Nagananda Kodituwakku appeared for the  petitioner. Deputy Solicitor General Kanishka de Silva Balapatabendi  appeared for the Attorney General.