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# Supreme Court Orders Fowzie to Pay Millions — and Apologize to the Public
- URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/supreme-court-orders-fowzie-to-pay-millions-and-apologize-to-the-public/
- Published: 2026-09-29T16:05:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-29T16:05:07.000Z
- Author: Our Reporter
- Tags: September 2026

**COLOMBO, Sri Lanka —** Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ordered a former cabinet minister on Tuesday to pay about 6.6 million rupees to the state and publicly apologize after finding that his use of a government vehicle for personal purposes violated the constitutional right to equality.

A.H.M. Fowzie, a veteran politician who served in several ministerial positions, was ordered to pay 1,664,334.93 rupees within one month to reimburse expenses associated with the vehicle and an additional 5 million rupees within two months as exemplary compensation for acts of bribery and corruption established before the court.

The money is to be paid into Sri Lanka’s Consolidated Fund.

The ruling was issued by a three-judge Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena and Justices Janak De Silva and Arjuna Obeyesekere. Justice De Silva delivered the judgment.

The case concerned a luxury vehicle belonging to the Disaster Management Centre that Mr. Fowzie used between 2010 and 2015\. The vehicle, valued at about 19.5 million rupees, had been provided by the government of the Netherlands for disaster-management activities.

The court held that Mr. Fowzie’s use of the vehicle for his personal benefit violated Article 12(1) of Sri Lanka’s Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the law.

The fundamental-rights petition was filed by Chandra Jayaratne, a former chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, who argued that the misuse of public property had caused a loss to the state and violated citizens’ constitutional rights.

In an unusual additional order, the Supreme Court directed Mr. Fowzie to publicly apologize for the misuse of public property. He was ordered to publish a half-page apology, accompanied by a photograph of the vehicle, on the front pages of the *Silumina*, *Sunday Observer* and *Thinakaran* newspapers within one month.

The ruling follows a separate criminal case arising from the same use of the vehicle.

In August 2024, Mr. Fowzie pleaded guilty in the Colombo High Court to charges brought by Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption commission. The High Court sentenced him to two years of rigorous imprisonment, suspended for 10 years, and imposed a fine of 400,000 rupees.

The Supreme Court proceedings were separate from that criminal prosecution. Rather than determining criminal guilt, the justices considered whether Mr. Fowzie’s conduct as a public official had infringed constitutionally protected fundamental rights.

The Supreme Court concluded hearings in the case in June and reserved its judgment before delivering Tuesday’s decision.