Courtesy Adaderana The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was presented to establish political stability in the country which is requested by most of the international agencies assisting Sri Lanka, Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs & Constitutional Reforms Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe says. His views came in the backdrop where SLFP chairman Maithripala Sirisena criticized the 22nd constitutional […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Cabinet of Ministers have approved the proposal to gazette the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution and to present it to the Parliament, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said. The amendment, which had been referred to as the 21st Amendment so far, will in fact be the 22nd Amendment, as another draft 21st Amendment […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island Intervention made by lawyer and fiscal officer in Aeroflot affair extraordinary. Justice, Prison Affairs, Constitutional Reforms Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa, PC, has warned that the abolition of the Executive Presidency hastily, will plunge the country into anarchy. The SLPP Colombo District MP said that as the Executive Presidential system […]

නීතිඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B Sc(Col), PGDC(Col) (අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා ජනතාව විසින් තෝරා නොගැනීමට ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන ගෙන ඒම නොව ජනතාව විසින් තෝරා ගන්නා ජනාධිපති ජනතාවට වගකිව යුතු තැනට ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයක් ගෙන ඒම බව මෙම කෙටි ලිපියෙන් පෙන්වා දී ඇත) විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයාව ජනතාව විසින් තෝරා පත් කරගත්තද, ජනතාවට ජනාධිපති සමඟ නීත්‍යානුකූලව සම්බන්ධ වීමට ඇත්තේ එකම […]

මුහුණු පොතෙන් 21 වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයට සහාය ලබාගැනීම සඳහා ජනාධිපති මන්දිරයේදී අතිගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් පැවති රැස්වීමේදී ගරු අධිකරණ, බන්ධනාගාර කටයුතු සහ ව්‍යවස්ථාපිත ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ අමාත්‍ය විජේදාස රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා විසින් 21 වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය සම්බන්ධයෙන් කෙටි හැඳින්වීමක් කළ අතර, අතිගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමාද පවසා සිටියේ ඊට තමාද එකඟ වන බව සහ එයට සහාය ලබාදෙන ලෙසය. මේ අවස්ථා‍වේදී නැගී සිටි […]

නීතිඥ අරුණ ලක්සිරි උණවටුන B Sc(Col), PGDC(Col) (Let us bring in a constitutional amendment to introduce “People’s Bills” and protect the legislative power of the people by 1% of the population in a district.) යම් දිස්ත්‍රික්කයක ජනතාව 1% අත්සන් කර යම් කරුණකට, ඉල්ලීමට අදාලව නීතියක් පනවන ලෙස අදාල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ  මන්ත්‍රීවරයෙකු මගින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට යෝජනාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කර […]

Malinda Seneviratne There are certain rules of thumb with regard to constitutional reform. First, such exercises should never be predicated on political expediency. In other words, one’s allegiance or otherwise to the immediate beneficiary, beneficiaries or political party/coalition should not be a factor in offering support or objecting, respectively. Secondly, one’s allegiance or otherwise to […]

Courtesy Adaderana Today the country is in bane with many crises, as a result of concentrating power around the Executive, says Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) parliamentarian Eran Wickramaratne. He said the proposed 21st Amendment to the Constitution by the government, which appointed Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister, gives the President the power to keep under […]

By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, May 23: The Sri Lankan cabinet, which met here on Monday, discussed a draft 21 st. Amendment of the constitution meant to reduce the powers of the Executive President and increase the powers of the parliament on the pattern of the repealed 19 th.Amendment. The Prime Minister’s office said in […]

Courtesy The TelegraphOnLine 21st Amendment to the Constitution to be referred to the cabinet for approval on Monday. Sri Lanka’s minister of justice has said that the 21st Amendment to the Constitution will be referred to the cabinet for approval on Monday, a media report said on Sunday, paving the way to curb the unfettered […]

National Joint Committee The SJB has proposed an amendment to the Constitution to abolish the Executive Presidential system without changing the current electoral system or repealing the 13th Amendment. The Bar Association proposal to abolish the Executive Presidential System is on similar lines.  The Need to Change the Electoral System. The proportional representation system was […]

Courtesy Hiru News පෞද්ගලික මන්ත්‍රී යෝජනා ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති 21 වන සහ 22 වැනි ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පනත් කෙටුම්පත් ඇතුළත් ගැසට් අතිරේකයක් නිකුත් කර තිබෙනවා. ඒ සමගි ජන බලවේගයේ මහලේකම් මන්ත්‍රී රංජිත් මද්දුම බණ්ඩාර සහ ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ ආචාර්ය විජයදාස රාජපක්ෂ යන අය විසින්. මෙම පනත් ප්‍රකාශය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම පිණිසයි නිකුත් කර ඇත්තේ. ඒ […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a proposal to introduce the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, based on the positive features of the 19th and 20th amendments.  Meanwhile a sub-committee has been appointed to carry out further action with regard to the proposed 21st constitutional amendment.    Earlier today, the committee report on […]

Jayantha: Liyanage – General Secretary – SJP The proposed new Constitution must restore the historical national rights of the Sinhala nation lost in the year 1815 by taking the following aspects into consideration.  (01). The New Constitution must be named as THE SINHALA CONSTITUTION”. The name of the nation must be named as SINHALA NATION” […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island The government’s announcement that a new Constitution will be unveiled within the next few months is in keeping with one of the ten key policy commitments in the President’s election manifesto. This announcement has encouraged several prominent constitutional experts to express opinions relating to constitutional reforms, perhaps in the […]

Courtesy Adaderana A new draft Constitution will be ready by the end of this year, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told the Parliament on Wednesday (November 10). The Justice Ministry has informed the prime minister that the experts’ committee appointed to formulate a new constitution is now in its final stages of preparation of a draft. […]

Stanley Gunaratne  Politicians bellow rhetoric, making propaganda mountains out of molehills of achievements, whilst our beautiful island nation of phenomenal potential aimlessly drifts, forever the land of tomorrow. Given recent talk about granting licences to Indian fishermen (i.e. CRIMINALS) and holding elections for parasitic PCs, one wonders when Sri Lanka will be allowed to thrive.  Let’s […]

Austin Fernando  I refer to the article written by Mr. C Wijeyawickrema (CW) in Lankaweb, in response to my article that appeared in the Island newspaper on the last Xmas Day. CW says that he had two purposes in responding; one, to reply to the contents of my article; and second, to give an alternative […]

C. Wijeayawickrema November 27, 2020 Secretary,Expert Committee (EC) to draft a new constitutionColombo. Dear Sir/Madam, Topic 2(h) – Decentralization – Jana Sabha I wish to submit this summary of the proposal sent by me a few days ago. Several readers who saw a printed version of it in a popular website (Lankaweb), suggested that I […]

Stanley Gunaratne  There was a time when our Parliament was filled with statesmen and women. Honourable members with integrity, vision and integrity. Whose oratory was full of class, wit and wisdom which any legislative chamber in the world would consider it an honour to bear witness to.  Sadly today, this once august chamber is full […]

Stanley Gunaratne  The current 1978 Constitution’s “Equality” clauses are meaningless since they are superseded by 600+ personal laws thanks to Article 16 overriding Article 12.  Article 16 currently permits any personal laws made by Parliament before, or after 1978 to override the Constitution! This flies in the face of equality. The best Constitution we had […]

Stanley Gunaratne  1. Abolition of Indo Lanka Accord. Adoption of a Foreign Policy of Balance to counter regional players. Adoption of a “Total Defence” policy based on Psychological, Social, Economic, Civil, Digital and Military Defence. The following two sections should be included in a future constitution and national policy: A lesson in history: 2. It […]

THAWALAMA DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION Puselahena Estate, Kindelpitiya, Millewa. 1st November 2020. The Secretary,Experts Committee to draft a new constitution,Room 32 (Block 02) BMICH,Bauddhaloka Mawatha,Colombo 7, Dear Sir, A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR THE ISLAND NATION OF SINHALE Heeding to a request that has been made to the Public by the Experts Committee appointed by the government to […]

Lt Col. A.S.Amarasekera (Retd.)Puselahena Estate, Kindelpitiya, Millewa. 6th November 2020. The Secretary,Experts Committee to draft a new constitution,Room 32 (Block 02) BMICH,Bauddhaloka Mawatha,Colombo 7, Dear Sir, Why political power should be decentralized and not devolved The observations made by me first as a military officer and subsequently as the Director of Operations of the Thawalama […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Third Reading of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution has been passed with amendment with a two-thirds majority. A total of 156 voted in favour of the constitutional amendment while 65 MPs voted against. The Second Reading of the 20th Amendment was also passed in Parliament with a two-thirds majority, this evening. […]

Courtesy Adaderana Clause 17 of the draft bill of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which calls for removing the barrier on dual citizenship was passed in the Parliament with a majority of 93 votes a short while ago. Out of the 213 Members of Parliament who were present at the parliamentary sitting, 157 had […]

Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana Courtesy The Daily Mirror The sole objective of the 20th Amendment is to safeguard the unitary status of the country and to ensure the nation’s security, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told Parliament yesterday. Speaking during the debate on the 20th Amendment Prime Minister Rajapaksa said the 19th Amendment to the […]

By M. Lakshhman Wickramasinghe In the public discussion about the merits and demerits of the 19th or 20th Amendments the most vital national issue, it seems, has not received high recognition that it deserves. Our two thousand plus years of history and the unfortunate developments that took place in the post- Independent era have  taught […]

Courtesy Hiru News Justice Minister Ali Sabry states that the Government has decided to withdraw clauses 05 & 22 of the proposed 20th amendment to the constitution which were directed by the Supreme Court to be passed through a referendum.

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Government today reiterated that it would make several changes to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution at the committee stage including an amendment to allow citizens to challenge the President’s action by filling Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions. Education Minister Professor G.L. Peiris said the President’s immunity was constricted […]