Sri Lanka: The Rise Of The Security Apparatus And The Decline Of The Criminal Justice System

By Basil Fernando -August 2, 2012

Basil Fernando

A few decades ago, Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system was organised on the basis of the Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the departmental orders of the police . The Penal Code defines crime and lays down penalties for each particular crime. New crimes were identified or defined either through amendment to the Penal Code or through separate statues. The Criminal Procedure Code describes basic protocol that should mechanisms in the justice and law enforcement institutions should comply with and provide proper processes along which those in authority must operate. This includes how complaints are to be taken down, how to and who should conduct the investigations into crime, how the findings of the investigations are to be submitted to the Attorney-General, how arrests should be made, how indictments are to be made by the Attorney-General, how the indictments are to be filed in courts, how the trial process is to be carried out and how bail and appeals are to be made. The Criminal Procedure Code also lays down the manner in which people are to be summoned to courts and how to deal with persons who evade the summons, as well as many other matters incidental to the investigation, prosecution, trial, appeal, sentencing and punishment of an accused in accordance with accepted legal principles within the country. This system that had been gradually developed over centuries was supported, implemented and enforced by the police departmental orders, and guaranteed to large extent fairness through equality before the law and equality of protection by the law.Read More