The Mullaitivu magistrate’s court revoked its ban on Maaveerar Naal and injunctions placed on dozens of Tamil politicians and civil society members, stating that the need to remember the dead was a fact of human nature.

On Thursday, the Magistrate T. Saravanabavan amended the court’s earlier judgement which had granted Mullaitivu police’s applications for bans on commemorations, and 72 individual injunctions against politicians, activists and community leaders.

Highlighting that representations of the leadership or insignia of banned organisations should not be used, the judge said that remembrance of the dead could be carried out regardless of their identity.

Seven Mullaitivu police stations filed an appeal against the revocation today, Friday, but the appeal was rejected, with the Magistrate reiterating the previous day’s verdict.

After several court injunctions preventing the commemoration of Maaveerar Naal were served across the North-East, on Monday three courts in Jaffna dismissed police applications to serve injunctions in their own jurisdictions. The following day the Kayts Magistrate’s court also dismissed applications for injunctions.

This morning the Mannar court also dismissed police petitions for a ban on Maaveerar Naal and applications for injunctions against six individuals, including TNA MPs Selvam Adaikalanathan and Charles Nirmalanathan. The magistrate dismissed the applications stating police had failed to submit sufficient evidence to justify the injunctions.