NPC Chief Minister’s Battle With The Chief Secretary

By Austin Fernando -August 1, 2014

Austin Fernando

I wrote an article under the tittle NPC- “Driving” Or “Driven” To “Failure Of Administrative Machinery”? on 20th April this year. It was due to the messy events that were taking place in the Northern Provincial Council due to lack of understanding of due processes, precedence, experience etc and ongoing political manipulations. I observed such during a short visit to Jaffna with my friends Late Professor Emeritus Ranjith Amerasinghe and AttorneyJayampathy Wickramaratne, PC.

The issues ended up in Supreme Courts as a Fundamental Application filed against the Chief Minister by the Chief Secretary. The determination was to be declared on the July 30th, but has been rescheduled for next Monday (August 4^th 2014).

As a person interested in devolution of power or sharing power, I am awaiting the text of the determination. My reproduction of the article is to open space for readers to review the stances of the parties in the light of the determination with experiences we have had as public officers of yester years, in addition to how we interpreted the law as administrators.

Both legal luminaries for the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary being seasoned attorneys would have dealt with the case using some or many of the material I have placed in the article and even more due to their vast knowledge on Administrative and Constitutional Law. It could be even none used as administrative thinking does not necessarily click with legal thinking. Of course, if some valid point I raised in the article which would have been pertinent for argument had not been used, it may certainly frustrate the defaulter as after-thought. It is a pity if that happens.

Finally, I repeat what I have written at the end of this quoted article. Read More