Consensus reached on CC
Supreme Court wants confirmation by next Monday
By S.S.Selvanayagam
The Supreme Court yesterday directed the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader to submit a joint letter to the President setting out the names of the six members they had agreed on to be nominated to the Constitutional Council (CC).
The names of parliament’s former Secretary General Nihal Seneviratne, former Supreme Court Judge C.V. Wigneswaran, Sivakumar Nadesan and Professor Sherifdeen have been proposed by the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader and accepted.
The fifth person recommended by consensus of both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader was Moratuwa University Vice Chancellor Professor Malik Ranasinghe.
When the matter came up before the Court yesterday Senior State Counsel Nerin Pulle said there had been two meetings on February 17 and 19 convened by the Speaker with the representatives of the minority parties represented in parliament but there had been no consensus on the nominee.
However UNP deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya who was present in Court yesterday said a majority were in favour of Professor Jeyadeva Uyangoda as the representative of the minority parties.
On this basis the Court recommended that Professor Uyangoda, be nominated as the sixth member of the Constitutional Council.
The Bench comprised Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, Justices N.G. Amaratunga and K. Sripavan and the matter was listed to be mentioned on March 9.
Earlier the Supreme Court had suggested that if a consensus could not be reached by the minority parties the Speaker could conduct a vote to select the nominee.
The Constitutional Council is to consist of ten members including the Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader and one member nominated by the President.
The Petitioners -- Peradeniya University senior lecturer Sumanasiri Liyanage, Attorney-at-Law and Executive Director of South Asia Peace Institute Subash Ravi Jayawardena -- in their petition said that despite repeated requests by the public and the civil society organizations, the Constitutional Council had not been reconstituted since March 2005 and as such the CC had ceased to be in existence for three years.
The petitioners had cited President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Speaker W.J. M. Lokubandara, presidential secretary, Lalith Weeratunga, the Attorney General and Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremasinghe as respondents.
The Constitutional Council was formed in March 2002 and was dissolved in March 2005 with the expiration of its three-year term of office.
The petitioners said the CC a mandatory requirement under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution had ceased exist for nearly three years and that although nominations had been made, a dispute regarding the minority party representative caused a delay to constituting the Council.
Attorneys-at-law M. A. Sumanthiran with Viran Corea and Suren Fernando appeared for the two petitioners. President’s Counsel Sibly Aziz with A.P. Niles appeared for the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe. Senior State Counsel Nerin Pulle appeared for the respondents. Sanjeeva Jayawardane instructed by Sudath Perera Associates appeared for Attorney General Mohan Peiris in his personal capacity.
dailymirror.lk
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment