COLOMBO, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended the dissolution of Parliament by President Maithripala Sirisena, granting interim relief, lawyers said.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Nalin Perera, heard petitions filed by many political parties on Monday and Tuesday and issued an order on the dissolution of Parliament till early December.
The case was further fixed for argument on Dec. 4, 5 and 6.
President Sirisena, last Friday, dissolved Parliament and declared Jan. 5 as the date for a snap parliamentary election in order to resolve weeks of political turmoil which erupted after the president sacked his Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced with former President Mahinda Rajapakse.
The president then immediately formed a caretaker government, a move which Wickremesinghe's party said was illegal.
Sirisena's sudden move to dissolve Parliament came one and a half years ahead of the scheduled parliamentary polls.
The president said his decision to dissolve Parliament and call for a snap election was to avoid violence from erupting on the streets of the country and on the floor of the House, when Parliament would have convened on Nov. 14.
The president had in an earlier gazette notification prorogued Parliament till Nov. 14.
