A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Back to 500BC.
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, September 5, 2020
04/09/2020
Basically, brings back 18A, except the reduction of the terms of President and parliament to five years, 2-term limit for the President and right to information
President appoints Ministers and deputies; not required to act on the advice of PM as was the case under 19A; may consult PM but not required to do so
Assignment of subjects and functions a matter for President; PM has no role
President can remove PM or any minister or deputy minister
President can hold ministries; any subject not assigned is for the President
No limit on the number of Ministers and deputy ministers
As R. Premadasa said PM will again be a ‘peon’ like he was under JR and DBW was under him; also like DM Jayaratne under MR
Full immunity for President for actions as President; not subject to fundamental rights jurisdiction of Supreme Court as under 19A
Constitutional Council abolished; Parliamentary Council brought back
President only seeks observation of Parliamentary Council in making appointments to the judiciary, high posts and independent commissions
The rationale behind the Constitutional Council was that there would be a national consensus on such appointments; now President can make appointments at will
19A fixed the retirement age of AG and IGP at 60 so that they need not go to the President for extensions after reaching 58 thus giving them much-needed independence; this is abolished
Parliament can be dissolved by President after one year; if the previous Parliament completed the full 5-year term, he can dissolve even before one year
19A increased the period after which a Bill can be presented to Parliament after gazetting, to 2 weeks; this was done to give citizens enough time to study a Bill and challenge in the Supreme Court; this is reduced to one week;
19A abolished urgent bills; 20A seeks to bring them back; the danger in urgent bills is that they are not published in the Gazette but sent direct to the Supreme Court; citizens do not get a chance to study Bills and challenge them; enough instances of Supreme Court missing obviously unconstitutional provisions; since we do not have post-enactment judicial review, such unconstitutional provisions cannot be challenged after the Bill is certified by the Speaker
National Audit Commission abolished
National Procurement Commission which formulated guidelines for procurement of goods and services by government institutions abolished
Dual citizens may be MP or President
by Anonymous.