Sri Lanka Supreme Court to deliver decision on constitutional amendments today

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court is to deliver its decision on the proposed amendments to the country's Constitution today to the President and the Speaker.

A five-judge bench of Supreme Court took up the Draft Bill Tuesday to decide whether the proposed amendments are consistent with the Constitution.
Sri Lanka Cabinet on Monday during a special session approved the amendments to be presented in the parliament as a Draft Bill.

The Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice Dr. Shirani A. Bandaranayake (President), Justice K. Sripavan, Justice P. A. Ratnayake PC, Justice S. I. Imam and Justice Suresh Chandra directed Attorney General President's Counsel Mohan Peiris and the other counsels who appeared for several other parties to submit their written submissions before 10 a.m. today.
The main amendments to the Constitution are the deletion of clause 2 of article 31 which specifies term limits on Executive Presidency, appointment of a five-member Parliamentary Council in place of the Constitutional Council specified by the 17th Amendment and permission for President to attend parliament once in three months.
Deletion of clause 2 of article 31 will remove restrictions on term limits and enable the President to contest for a third term. The proposed amendments would allow the President to attend the parliamentary sessions every three months. However he will not have voting powers but will be available for legislators to question, the government revealed.
The proposed Parliamentary Council (PC) will comprise the Speaker, the Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader, a nominee MP of the Prime Minister and a nominee MP of the Opposition Leader. The PC will be responsible for the reorganization of independent commissions. It will continue to function even when the Parliament is dissolved and it would be in force until the new Parliament assumes duties.

According to the government, all nominations the PC makes are to be forwarded to the President within one week for observations and in the case of a failure to do so, the President has powers to make appointments. The President and the parliament have powers to remove any members from the PC if necessary.

At a media briefing at the Mahaweli Centre Tuesday Minister Susil Premajayantha has said that the proposed changes are not structural amendments and therefore a two-third majority vote in the parliament will be sufficient for the amendments to become law.

Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP) yesterday called on the government to hold a referendum on the proposed constitutional amendments and alleged that the government was in a haste to amend the Constitution.

Minister Premajayantha has said that the amendments had not been prepared hastily but the provisions had been discussed with opposition parties and other stakeholders over a long period.

Following the Supreme Court's decision today, the Speaker will place the Bill on the Order Paper of the Parliament. It will be debated on September 8.

The ruling alliance is confident of passing the Bill with a two-third majority in the 225-member parliament with at least 160 votes in favor.