Top Sri Lanka court clears way to strip former leaders of perks

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court cleared the final legal hurdle on Tuesday to evict former presidents from their stately mansions and strip them of their luxury cars, bodyguards and pensions.

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President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s leftist government has tabled a bill that would repeal a 1986 law granting lavish state housing and other entitlements to former presidents and their widows.

The bill is part of Dissanayake’s effort to impose more official austerity after the country’s worst-ever economic crisis.

Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne told parliament on Tuesday that the highest court had rejected all six petitions challenging the bill.

The court “has ruled that the bill can be passed with a simple majority in parliament,” Wickramaratne told the assembly, where the government enjoys a comfortable two-thirds majority.