Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has constituted a seven-judge bench to decide upon President’s proclamation to dissolve the parliament while a court of appeal will hear on Friday the petition challenging holding of PM post by Mahinda Rajapaksa.

A three-judge bench of Supreme Court had earlier issued stay order after several parties filed petitions against dissolving of Parliament and further hearing will be held next week to decide upon the matter.

Another court of appeal decided to take up on Friday the petition of Quo Warranto filed by 122 MPs challenging Mahinda Rajapaksa’s authority to hold the office of Prime Minister after a no-confidence motion was passed in Parliament against him.

MPs led by Mr. Rajapaksa and President Maithripala Sirsena have disputed the no-confidence motion saying it was not carried as per procedure.

In another development, United National Party (UNP) led by ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has called on the President to subject himself to a probe proposed to inquire into the corruption that took place during Mr. Wickremsinghe tenure.

UNP Chairman Kabir Hashim said in a statement that the President Sirisena was the head of the government as well as head of state and the President is also equally responsible if there were corruption and fraud in the government.

The statement came as President meeting with foreign correspondents yesterday said a presidential commission will be appointed to inquire into the acts of fraud and corruption occurred while Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister during the period of 2015 to 25th of October 2018.

Responding to President’s vow not to appoint Ranil Wickremesinghe as PM in his lifetime, the statement said it is a blatant violation of the fundamentals of Parliamentary Democracy.

The UNP also reminded President Sirisena that he is not president for life.