Chief justice K. Sripavan, Priyantha Jayawardena and Eva Wanasundara issued the order, a copy of which is given below:

However, the Customs has sent a letter to the importer, saying they need advice from the attorney general to release the arecanuts.

No response from Customs DG, lawyer

When contacted, director general of Customs R. Semasinghe said he could not make a comment and asked to speak to their lawyer Peter Gunawardena.

However, reached over the phone, Gunawardena told us to refer the matter to the Customs spokesman.

When contacted, Leslie Gamini, the Customs spokesman, said he could not give a direct answer, as the importer has filed a case.

He said it was not an issue of not enforcing a court order, but that there are many things that should be considered as per procedures, about which the advice of the AG has been sought.

Given below is a Customs letter to the Agricultural Ministry, seeking details of the license to import arecanut.

Although this particular arecanut consignment remains in Customs custody despite a court order to release it, there have been previous instances in which arecanut imported without licenses had been released.

Sri Lanka Mirror will reveal those instances soon…