Ranil Wickremesinghe. Archive | Picture credit score: N. Ram
COLOMBO
Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has come beneath heavy criticism for his authorities’s defiant response to a current Supreme Court docket determination that main attorneys and critics say quantities to a “deliberate disregard” for the Structure.
The assault follows an interim order issued by the island nation’s apex courtroom on July 24, 2024 concerning the president’s appointment of the police chief.
The order restrained Inspector Common of Police Deshabandu Tennakoon from persevering with in workplace and requested Mr Wickremesinghe to nominate an appropriate officer to the submit throughout his tenure.
The Supreme Court docket ruling adopted 9 Elementary Rights Petitions difficult the appointment of the Inspector Common, primarily on constitutional grounds.
The appointment of the senior police official has additionally been controversial as a result of in December 2023 the Supreme Court docket discovered him personally liable for torture in a 2011 case.
Following the current courtroom order, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena instructed Parliament that the federal government refused to just accept the choice. The submit of Inspector Common was not vacant and due to this fact precluded the President from appointing an interim Inspector Common, he stated.
His feedback sparked criticism from opposition politicians, who known as the federal government’s response “reckless.”
Taking to social media platform ‘X’, opposition chief Sajith Premadasa stated: “When a president defies the Supreme Court docket, he assaults the very essence of our democracy. At a time after we are combating for justice and progress, his reckless actions and political chess video games danger plunging us into chaos and oppression.”
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who leads the opposition Nationwide Folks’s Energy (NPP) alliance, has vowed to take authorized motion in opposition to Inspector Common of Police Thennakoon if he continues in workplace. He additionally challenged Prime Minister Gunawardena to make his assertion rejecting the Supreme Court docket’s determination outdoors the Home, with out the safety of parliamentary privilege.
In the meantime, President Ranil Wickremesinghe on July 28 requested the Speaker of Parliament and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court docket to carry talks to resolve the difficulty.
The Bar Affiliation of Sri Lanka (BASL), a number one skilled physique for attorneys, stated it “strongly condemns” the federal government’s efforts to “subvert the course of justice.”
“The declare that the Supreme Court docket has no energy to query appointments made by the President and authorised by the Constitutional Council is completely untenable,” BASL stated in its assertion, whilst the manager seems to be on a collision course with the judiciary.
“It’s important for the rule of legislation and the independence of the judiciary that the manager and the legislature respect the judgments of the nation’s courts,” he stated.
The Centre for Political Options (CPA), a Colombo-based non-governmental organisation, stated the President has a “responsibility” to uphold the Structure.
“Deliberate violation of the Structure, together with refusal to do what the Structure requires him to do, is a floor on which a president may be faraway from workplace,” it stated in a press release. Opposite to claims made by the sections, the Supreme Court docket’s interim order “had no influence” on the conduct of Sri Lanka’s presidential election scheduled for September 21, 2024, the CPA famous. “Whereas the order leaves it to the President to make an appropriate interim appointment to the submit, within the occasion that he fails to take action, the Election Fee may, as per the Structure, give needed orders to the hierarchy of the Sri Lanka Police to carry out capabilities associated to the election,” it stated.