Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday questioned the “excessively high” budget of former president amid allegations that large sums of state funds had been misappropriated just before her retirement. Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Friday questioned the “excessively high” budget of former president amid allegations that large sums of state funds had been misappropriated just before her retirement. Chief Justice Sarath Silva asked the state attorney general why former president Chandrika Kumaratunga had a budget exceeding the 290,000 dollars allocated for the up keep of the entire bench of 10 supreme court judges.
Silva who was asked to rule on the constitutionality of the government’s annual budget for 2006 to be presented in parliament on Thursday objected to “inequality” in treating former presidents.
“The budget sets aside only six million rupees for the office of (former) president D. B. Wijetunga. For president Kumaratunga over 29 million rupees has been set aside,” Silva said in open court.” Why is this inequality. President Kumaratunga’s allocation for next year is excessively high.”
A lawyer representing the state did not answer, and Silva noted that the entire supreme court was giv