Maithripala Sirisena
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)
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Charges pending
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Acquitted / dismissed
Next in court
Not publicly confirmed
A fundamental-rights judgment has been delivered concerning Maithripala Sirisena. It is a non-criminal finding, not a criminal conviction. Supreme Court fundamental-rights/constitutional judgment holding that then-President Maithripala Sirisena acted arbitrarily and beyond his constitutional authority in granting a 2019 presidential pardon to Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, who had been convicted of contempt of court and sentenced to a total of 19 years' imprisonment (to run concurrently over 6 years) for disrupting court proceedings and insulting the judiciary. The Court found the pardon violated constitutional procedures for clemency, the Public Trust Doctrine, natural justice, and the constitutional guarantee of equality, in part because Sirisena relied solely on advice from an Additional Legal Secretary rather than following established protocol. This is a non-criminal constitutional judgment reviewing an official act of the presidency — it is not a criminal case, charge, or conviction against Sirisena personally, and Gnanasara Thero's own underlying conviction is unaffected and remains on the record. Judgment delivered 10 Sep 2026, invalidating the 2019 pardon. No further legal action against Sirisena personally has been reported as a result of this judgment.
Maithripala Sirisena legal timeline
No dated legal events are confidently confirmed yet for this case file.
Maithripala Sirisena court cases
Gnanasara Thero presidential pardon fundamental rights case
Supreme Court fundamental-rights/constitutional judgment holding that then-President Maithripala Sirisena acted arbitrarily and beyond his constitutional authority in granting a 2019 presidential pardon to Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, who had been convicted of contempt of court and sentenced to a total of 19 years' imprisonment (to run concurrently over 6 years) for disrupting court proceedings and insulting the judiciary. The Court found the pardon violated constitutional procedures for clemency, the Public Trust Doctrine, natural justice, and the constitutional guarantee of equality, in part because Sirisena relied solely on advice from an Additional Legal Secretary rather than following established protocol. This is a non-criminal constitutional judgment reviewing an official act of the presidency — it is not a criminal case, charge, or conviction against Sirisena personally, and Gnanasara Thero's own underlying conviction is unaffected and remains on the record.
What’s happened
Judgment delivered 10 Sep 2026, invalidating the 2019 pardon. No further legal action against Sirisena personally has been reported as a result of this judgment.
- Court
- Supreme Court
- Next hearing / due
- No upcoming hearing announced
Sources (2)
Maithripala Sirisena political career
Ministerial positions
Minister of Mahaweli Development and Parliamentary Affairs
1997–2001
Minister of Irrigation, Mahaweli and Rajarata Development
2004–2005
Minister of Agriculture
2005–2010
Minister of Health
2010–2014
President of Sri Lanka
2015–2019
Minister of Defence
2015–2019
Minister of Mahaweli Development and Environment
2015–2019
Other political positions
General Secretary, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)
2001–2014
Chairperson, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)
2015–2024
Maithripala Sirisena party history
Sirisena has said he was a member of the Peking Wing of the Ceylon Communist Party in 1966, before moving to the SLFP in 1967. Self-reported biographical detail, not independently corroborated by a contemporary party record.
Sources (1)
Sirisena says he joined the SLFP in 1967 and became Secretary of its Polonnaruwa youth organisation that year; some secondary biographies separately state he 'obtained SLFP membership' in 1978 — that discrepancy is preserved here rather than resolved by changing the start date. He was SLFP General Secretary from 2001 until his November 2014 break with the Rajapaksa government (see Politicians.affiliations for the office itself). On 22 Nov 2014, following his defection to become the common opposition presidential candidate, the SLFP leadership announced his membership and positions were suspended (contemporary reports varied between 'suspended' and 'expelled', encoded conservatively here as a suspension). He contested and won the 8 Jan 2015 presidential election under the New Democratic Front ticket — an electoral affiliation, not a party change; an EU election-observation report specifically noted he had never resigned from the SLFP. On 16 Jan 2015 the SLFP Central Committee appointed him party Chairman after Mahinda Rajapaksa handed over the leadership, with members who had left or been removed during the campaign reinstated. He remained SLFP Chairman through the 2020 parliamentary election — where he was elected on the SLPP ticket in Polonnaruwa while contemporary reporting continued to identify him as SLFP Leader/Chairman, strong evidence this was an electoral ticket rather than an SLFP-to-SLPP party switch — until a Colombo District Court injunction (4 Apr 2024) barred him from functioning as Chairman amid an internal leadership dispute, followed by his resignation from the Chairmanship on 12 May 2024 (a resignation from the leadership post, not a reported resignation from SLFP membership; his faction's chosen successor was disputed by another SLFP faction). Reporting from 17 Jun 2025 said he had asked Chandrika Kumaratunga to take charge of rebuilding the SLFP and was no longer seeking to retain the chairmanship, while Election Commission documents reportedly still listed him as chairman at that time because of the unresolved leadership dispute. No reliable evidence was found of Sirisena subsequently resigning from or being expelled from SLFP membership itself.