The Supreme Court announced today that the prevailing merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces was not Constitutional, and not in accordance with the law.

The Northern and Eastern provinces were merged as agreed in the 1987 Indo-Lanka agreement signed by President J. R. Jayawardhana and then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The judgement was the unanimous decision of a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court chaired by Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, which examined a petition by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the Jathika Hela Urumaya, challenging the legality of the merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces making up the Northeastern Province.

The Supreme Court held that the Emergency Regulation made in 1988 merging the Northern and Eastern Provinces was not in compliance with law.

A spokesman for the Presidential Secretariat said the Government will make a careful study of the determination by the Supreme Court with all its implications, in deciding on steps to be taken in view of this determination.