Interim Order preventing appointment of SLPS Grade 3 Principals

The Supreme Court yesterday (28) issued an Interim Order preventing new appointments for Grade 3 of the Sri Lanka Principal’s Service (SLPS) without conducting a new competitive examination. The Supreme Court issued this order till the hearing of a Fundamental Rights petition filed against the Principal appointments based on the competitive examination held in 2019. This interim order will remain in force until the hearing of the petition is over.

The petition was called before the Supreme Court Bench comprising Vijith Malalgoda, Preethi Padman Surasena and Gamini Amarasekara.

This petition was filed by Ven. Buddhangkotte Sumanachandra Thera, a Grade 2 teacher of the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Service working at Sri Wimalasara College, Amuhenkanda, Rathnapura.

It was revealed in court that a competitive examination was held on February 13, 2019 to fill 1,918 Grade 3 Principal posts in the Sri Lanka Principal Service and 23,000 candidates appeared for the examination. Of them, 3,881 passed and 1,918 of them were appointed as Grade 3 Principals.

The Education Ministry on May 8 issued a gazette notification for filling the vacancies in the Principal service and according to it, 4,718 vacancies are to be filled from those who passed the competitive examination held in 2019.

The petitioner argues that this is a severe injustice and requests to declare that their fundamental rights have been violated due to this decision.

The petitioner has also requested to issue an order to the education authorities to conduct a new competitive examination for new appointments.

After considering the facts presented, the Supreme Court decided to suspend the new recruitments and ordered the hearing of the petition to begin on November 6.