JAFFNA, Sri Lanka: The office of Northern Province Governor Nagalingam Vethanayahan has acknowledged that the building it occupies does not have a Certificate of Conformity. The governor has repeatedly directed local authorities to act against businesses that operate without one.
The admission came in a reply to a request under the Right to Information Act filed on Aug. 20 by Kumaravadivel Guruparan, a Jaffna attorney and former head of the law department at the University of Jaffna. He asked whether a Certificate of Conformity was available for the building that houses the Governor’s Secretariat on Old Park Road in Chundukuli. If so, he asked for a copy.
“The certificate requested by you has not been obtained by our office,” the Secretariat replied in a letter signed by G. Ehanthan, its information officer and an assistant secretary. The letter said that on the governor’s instructions, all government departments had been advised to obtain the relevant certificate. It said the Secretariat was also taking steps to obtain one for its own building.
The letter is dated Sept. 9. Mr. Guruparan said he received it on Tuesday.
A Certificate of Conformity is issued by a local authority to confirm that a completed building complies with its approved plans and with building regulations.
Mr. Vethanayahan has issued several instructions to local government officials on enforcing the certificate. At a provincial review meeting in October 2025, he directed local authorities to stop commercial activity at businesses operating without one, citing building safety and local government revenue. In April, he ordered officials to identify businesses without certificates, serve notices on them and set up a system to monitor compliance.
The requirement was also among the issues in the governor’s removal of Gnanapragasam Kishor, who was then vice chairman of the Chavakachcheri Urban Council.
A gazette notice published in February appointed an inquiry into the council. One of the matters it listed was whether Mr. Kishor had questioned the authority of the Local Government Commissioner without examining the council’s own prescribed trade license application forms. Those forms require a Certificate of Conformity.
Kandiah Ariyanayagam, a retired district judge, conducted the inquiry. On June 19, Mr. Vethanayahan issued an extraordinary gazette removing Mr. Kishor as vice chairman and as a member of the council, effective June 24. The gazette based the removal on the governor’s finding, after the inquiry, that Mr. Kishor was disqualified from holding office under the Urban Councils Ordinance. The certificate dispute was one of several matters the inquiry examined.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Mr. Guruparan wrote that Mr. Kishor had been removed for the single reason that he said the certificate should not be made mandatory for trade licenses.
“The Governor, who has been working illegally for the past two years from a building without a CoC, must step down from office, or withdraw the gazette notification that removed Kishor,” Mr. Guruparan wrote in Tamil, under the heading “Will the Governor resign?”
The Secretariat’s reply does not say whether a certificate was required for the building when it was built or first occupied.
The reply said the governor had advised “all Government Departments” to obtain certificates. That suggests other state buildings in the province may also lack them.
Mr. Vethanayahan has faced growing criticism from Tamil political figures and activists in the North, who accuse him of acting on behalf of the National People's Power government. The N.P.P., led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, made gains in the May 2025 local elections but did not win control of any council in the Tamil-majority North. Critics say the government is using the governor's supervisory powers to influence councils run by Tamil parties. The governor rejects the charge. He has said his actions are not aimed at any person, party or council and are meant to protect public funds and enforce the law.
Mr. Kishor was one of two elected Tamil representatives the governor removed in June. The other was Sundaralingam Kandeeban, the mayor of Vavuniya, who was removed after a separate inquiry by Mr. Ariyanayagam. The governor's office said that inquiry found administrative and financial irregularities, including failures to follow procurement procedures and obtain required approvals.
The removals led to protests and business shutdowns in Vavuniya and Chavakachcheri. Both men challenged their removals in court. Mr. Kandeeban was represented by M.A. Sumanthiran, a President's Counsel and former member of Parliament. The Vavuniya High Court issued interim orders suspending the governor's gazette and barring the authorities from replacing him while the case continues. Mr. Kishor's challenge in Jaffna, argued by Mr. Guruparan, failed.
The Northern Provincial Council has had no elected members since its term expired in 2018. In its absence, the governor, who is appointed by the president, exercises many of the council's powers, including oversight of local authorities.
