Published on: May 25, 2020 – 1.) The 19th Amendment Bill was first presented to the Parliament in 2002 by amending Article 70 of the Constitution to remove the power of the President to dissolve the Parliament one year later.
2.) Seven Supreme Court judges unanimously decided on the 2002 bill, amending the 70th Article of the Constitution for removing the president’s power to dissolve the Parliament one year later which requires to be passed by the special majority and approved by the people at a referendum.
The final paragraphs of the determination are as follows;
“[(3) The inconsistency with Article 3 read with the relevant provisions of Article 4 would cease if clauses 2, 3, 4 and5 are deleted and substituted with an appropriate amendment to proviso (a) to Article 70 (1) of the Constitution by removing the period of one year in the proviso and substituting that with a period not exceeding three years.
SARATH N. SILVA, CJ.
S. W. B. WADUGODAPITIYA, J.
DR. SHIRANI A. BANDARANAYAKE, J.
A. ISMAIL, J.
P. EDUSSURIYA, J.
H. S. YAPA, J.
J. A. N. DE SILVA, J.
Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution unconstitutional and requires to be passed by the special majority and approved by the people at a referendum subject to item 3 of the determination.)]”
3.) The Supreme Court determination of the 19th ammendment bill of 2002 can be read by selecting the following link of the website of the Ministry of Justice.
https://www.lawnet.gov.lk/2002/12/31/in-re-the-nineteenth-amendment-to-the-constitution/
(The above mentioned Supreme Court determination will be provided in Sinhala language by the writer in the near future.)
4.) The 19th Amendment Bill which was presented to the Parliament in 2002 was abandoned because the Supreme Court stated that the 19th Ammendment should be approved by the people at a referendum.
5.) For the second time, the 19th Ammendment of the Constitution was presented to the parliament in 2015 for ammending another 16 provisions of the Constitution and also for removing the president’s power in Article 70 of the constitution regarding the dissolving the Parliament one year later.
(Total of 17 provisions including 16 new provisions and the other provison of
removal of the power of the President to dissolve the Parliament one year after as in 2002)
6.) The Supreme Court determination was delivered in 2015 by three Supreme Court judges for 16 out of 17 provisions of the 19th Amendment Bill that was presented to Parliament for the 2nd time.
7.) The Supreme Court determination of the 19th ammendment bill of 2015 can be read by selecting the following link of the website of the Parliament.
Link- https://www.parliament.lk/si/business-of-parliament/sc-decisions-on-bills
(The above mentioned Supreme Court determination will also be provided in Sinhala language by the writer in the near future.)
8.) In 2015, the Supreme Court decided on 16 provisions, other than the provision which seven Supreme Court judges had made a determination on the removal of the President’s power to dissolve Parliament a year later by amending Article 70 of the 19th Amendment in 2002.
9.) In 2015, the Speaker of the Parliament violated the last proviso of Article 79, Sub Article 80.2 of the Constitution and the Supreme Court determination regarding the 19th ammendment in 2002 and also did not consider both the determinations of 2002 and 2015 ( all 17 provisions) of the 19th Amendment of the Constitution, although it was legally required to do so.
10.) The Speaker deprived the franchise of the President, Supreme Court judges, other judges, lawyers, university lecturers, teachers, public servants, journalists and all other citizens by violating the decision of the referendum given for the ammendment of article 70 which was secured by the Supreme Court.
11.) The Executive and the Judiciary’s ‘soundless procedure’ regarding the fact that the Speaker of Parliament acted in contravention of the unanimous determination of the Supreme Court in 2002 and deprived the referendum franchise right of the people raises serious doubt about the people’s voting right which belongs to excercising their sovereignty.
12.) Who are the so-called (Maha) democrats who deprived the referendum franchise right which was given to the people by the Supreme Court in the 19th Ammendment in 2002, with an English conspiracy in 2015?
Why is that?
* [This is an English translation of the writer’s article dated 16.05.2020 –
“ශ්රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් 2002දී තහවුරු කළ විනිසුරුවරු, නීතිඥවරු , විශ්ව විද්යාල කථිකාචාර්යවරු, ගුරුවරු, රජයේ සේවකයන්, මාධ්යවේදීන් ඇතුළු ඡන්ද දායකයන්ගේ ඡන්ද බලය 2015 දී කථානායකවරයා විසින් අහිමි කළ ආකාරය.(ලිපියේ පරිවර්තනයකි. පහත එම සබැදිය දක්වා ඇත )
Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna
B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), AAL
Email <arunaunawatuna@gmail.com>
