MP Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa’s gazetted 22nd Amendment Bill (Private Member’s Bill) effectively seeks to:
a) Allow the President to decide whom to appoint as CJ, Supreme & Appeal Ct judges, JSC members, Attorney General, Auditor General, IGP, Ombudsman & Secy General of P’ment;
b) Require the President to merely ‘ascertain the views’ of the following, before appointing whomever he chooses:
▪︎JSC – w.r.t. the above superior court judicial and JSC appointments; and
▪︎Prime Minister – w.r.t. other abovementioned key public office appointments;
c) Remove express provision in Article 41C(3), prohibiting inter alia, removal of any holder of those key public offices except as provided for in the Constitution or any law;
N.B. – Removal of Officers (Proc) Act of 2002, is a law giving security of tenure to ē AG & IGP.
d) Provide and allow that “the President shall hold the Ministry of Defence and any other Ministries” (increasing ē amount of Executive Power that may be wielded by him in person);
e) Reduce the maximum number of non-Cabinet and Deputy Ministers appointable, from 40 to 30;
and
f) Remove current constitutional provisions allowing the Parliament of #SriLanka to decide on an increase in the number of Ministers upon formation of a National Government.
In short, the Bill seeks to
• Reduce judicial independence
• Reduce independence of key public offices
• Concentrate direct exercise of executive power in the Prez
• Reduce need for P’mentary involvement in govt (exercise of executive power)
• Discourage National Govt
Note: This thread merely outlines key effects of the published Bill if it is allowed to become law – irrespective of considerations/concerns of (in)consistency with the Constitution of #Lka, which are not enumerated here.
– Compiled from a tweeter thread from Viran Corea @ViranCorea