{"id":107014,"date":"2020-09-26T15:22:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-26T22:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107014"},"modified":"2020-09-26T15:22:07","modified_gmt":"2020-09-26T22:22:07","slug":"did-legislature-intend-to-by-pass-the-determinations-of-the-judiciary-on-19a-why-20a-is-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/26\/did-legislature-intend-to-by-pass-the-determinations-of-the-judiciary-on-19a-why-20a-is-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"DID LEGISLATURE \u201cINTEND\u201d TO BY-PASS THE DETERMINATIONS OF THE JUDICIARY ON 19A? WHY 20A IS NEEDED?"},"content":{"rendered":"

M D P DISSANAYAKE<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka is known as a notorious country for changing its Constitution. \nThere were claims that Ceylon cannot be developed under the Soulbury\nConstitution, until Art. No. 29 was amended and scrap the Senate and Rights\nof Appeal to the Privy Council of England .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nLate Mr Lew Kwan Yew was in power, media asked him, Why don\u2019t you change the\nConstitution?.  Without referring to a specific nation, he replied: \nthere is one country which changed its Constitution so many times since its\nIndependence, still in a mess.  I don\u2019t need to change my Constitution,\nbut if I want to do something, then I know which Article on which Page to use\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nNo. 20   used as an amendment  has so far been unsuccessful. In\nJune 2015, the Yahapalana government approved a draft to enact amendment no.20,\naimed at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(a)  \n.increasing\nthe number of MPs to 237<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \n(b)145 Parliamentarians to be elected under the first past the post system, 55\nunder the district  proportional representation system and 37 from the\nnational list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JVP,\na sleeping partner of the Yahapalana opposed it, as it will adversely affect\nthe minor parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then,\nJVP brought its own  No.20  in 2019 with the backing of UNP, TNA and\nSLMC to abolish Executive Presidency in March 2019.  That too did not go\nthe distance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now\nthe focus is on the  efforts to amend the   Amendment No.\n19.  Mr Wimal Weerawansa during the most recently concluded  general\nelection made No.l9  a headline placards carried by his supporters,\ndemanding scrapping of Amendment No. 19.  He further said that   I\nam not speaking so much about No. 19, because No. 19 is my preference ( MANAPA)\nnumber\u201d. This was in July 2020 and we are now  in Sept 2020, it is amazing\npoliticians forget the past in less than 3 months!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President\nMaithreepala Sirisena was elected by the public mandate for a period of 6\nyears, under the 18 th Amendment.   Under 19 th amendment, it was\ncurtailed to 5 years, without obtaining the consent of those who elected him\nto high office for 6 years. <\/strong>  The Transfer of Powers of the\nExecutive President  to the Prime Minister , The Speaker and Independent\nCommissions were  carried out by-passing the Voters consent.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tinkering\non the edges, the  dubious manipulations were carried out at Committee\nStage to by-pass the referendum.  The reason to by-pass the referendum was\ntoo obvious, that well over 50% of the voters were not likely to give executive\npowers  to a Prime Minister of the day, who did not possess even a\nsimple majority in the Parliament!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nwas a Legislative Conspiracy, to twist the arms of Voters, without reaching out\nto them.  Will it be argued that 19A was an act of mala-fides<\/em>, ( an\nact of bad faith and intent to deceive)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n2002 the attempt to amend the Article 70 of the Constitution to remove the\npowers of the President to dissolve the parliament one year after inauguration\ndid not proceed, as seven Supreme Court Judges unanimously decided that such an\namendment must be passed by a special majority ( meaning two thirds) plus \napproved by the people at a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where\ndid  the Speaker  derive constitutional  and transitional\nlegislative authority  to sign amendment No.  2015  draft into\nLaw ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did  Speaker violate \nthe Art.79 ss.80.2 in 2015 by signing a lopsided half-backed legislation into\nLaw to give Executive Powers to his political party Leader?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0dc3\u0dcf\u0db8\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dca\u200d\u0dba \u0da2\u0db1\u0dad\u0dcf\u0dc0 \u0d85\u0dc3\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1\u0dda \u0d89\u0dad\u0dcf \u0dc3\u0dbb\u0dbd \u0db4\u0dd0\u0dab\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dd2. \u0d89\u0dad\u0dcf \u0dc3\u0dbb\u0dbd \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dc3\u0db3\u0dd4\u0db8\u0d9a\u0dca\u0daf \u0dc3\u0dc4\u0dd2\u0dad\u0dc0\u0dba.  \u0d91\u0db1\u0db8\u0dca     \n19 \u0dc3\u0d82\u0dc1\u0ddd\u0db0\u0db1\u0dba \u0dc0\u0dbd\u0d82\u0d9c\u0dd4 \u0db1\u0dd0\u0dad\u0dca\u0db1\u0db8\u0dca 20  \u0dc3\u0d82\u0dc1\u0ddd\u0db0\u0db1\u0dba \u0db8\u0ddc\u0db1 \u0d9a\u0dd9\u0db7\u0dd9\u0dbd\u0dca\u0db8\u0dbd\u0d9a\u0da7\u0daf,  \u0d85\u0db4\u0dd2\n18 \u0d89\u0db8\u0dd4 \u0dba\u0db1\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dd2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nGeneral Public have a  very simple question with a very simple\nsolution.  That is:  If 19 amendment is not valid, why the hell we\nneed 20th  amendment, lets stop at 18!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is\nthere still room to challenge the 19A  and who will come forward? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M D P DISSANAYAKE Sri Lanka is known as a notorious country for changing its Constitution.  There were claims that Ceylon cannot be developed under the Soulbury Constitution, until Art. No. 29 was amended and scrap the Senate and Rights of Appeal to the Privy Council of England . When Late Mr Lew Kwan Yew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-m-d-p-dissanayake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}