Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been named as a respondent of the writ petition filed with the Court of Appeal challenging the previous government’s decision to purchase passports from two foreign companies.

Wickremesinghe has been named as a respondent of the relevant writ petition filed by Epic Lanka Private Limited, through a motion submitted by the petitioning party, when the petition was taken up before the two-member Appeals Court judge bench comprising Justices Mohammed Laffar and P. Kumaratnam yesterday (06).

During the hearing, the attorneys who appeared for the two foreign companies named as respondents stated that their clients have been critically prejudiced through the interim injunction issued by the court preventing the purchase of 5 million e-passports.

The attorneys, who pointed out that the relevant injunction will be in effect until the hearings of the petition are concluded, requested the court to issue an order lifting the injunction.

Meanwhile, appearing for the petitioning party, President’s Council Viran Corea argued that the process of purchasing the passports in question has been carried out under an informal procurement system.

Furthermore, the President’s Counsel objected to the lifting of the injunction issued, requesting for an expedited conclusion of the hearing of the petition and for a final verdict to be issued.

Following the consideration of the facts presented, the bench ordered the petitioning party to file objections related to the request to lift the injunction preventing the purchase of passports. 

Later, the case was also ordered to be recalled on December 09 for the consideration of facts on whether or not the injunction should be lifted.

The petition has been filed by Epic Lanka Private Limited seeking an order invalidating the decision taken by the previous government to purchase 750,000 normal passports and 5 million e-passports from two foreign firms.

Thales and local partner Just in Time Technologies (JITT) have been awarded the contract to supply Sri Lanka’s biometric passports, which are planned for a rollout next year.

The first batch of 100,000 chip-based passports are scheduled for delivery by Thales by July 2025, with an agreement to supply one million passports annually over five years, according to local newspapers. 

A previous government statement suggested the first biometric passports would be ready for issuance in January.

The Ministry of Public Security was set to procure the co-developed public key infrastructure and propose personalizing passports using their system on a fee-per-passport basis.

 This change would incur additional fees for the new personalization services from the consortium.

The transition has brought new challenges to the Department of Immigration and Emigration of Sri Lanka, which has introduced a mandatory prior online registration for new passport applications to reduce congestion at the head office.