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Law College students miss lectures demanding talks with Justice Minister
View(s):Most Colombo Law College students are on strike by not attending classes, until given an opportunity to discuss concerns with Minister of Justice, Wijeyadasa Rajapaksha, said Law Student’s Union Secretary Dasun Perera.
“We have been promised an opportunity for a discussion with the Minister of Justice regarding a number of issues including student suppression, installing CCTV cameras within the College premises and exams,” he said.
Former Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake visits the Colombo Law College prior to her retirement. Pic by Amila Gamage
He said, at present, students are on strike by not attending lectures, as authorities have failed to address their concerns, especially the Final Year Examination that was held in October 2014.
He said there were problems in the Commercial I and II, Civil Procedure I, Trust Accounts and Commercial Law II question papers.
They said the papers were set and marked by two different panels, while the Lecturers of the respective subjects were not involved in this process.
“In the Commercial I paper, more than half the questions were not from the syllabus, the Trust Accounts paper the bank reconciliation question did not balance and the Civil Procedure paper was given 1 hour and 20 minutes late,” said the Union Secretary.
He further said that, according to students, there were errors in the Commercial Law II paper, while both Sinhala and Tamil medium students were unable to understand the language, as it was not in simple terms.
“We have been raising these issues for many weeks and have informed the Council as well,” he said.
However, a letter on a letterhead of the Law Student’s Union, stating the grievances of Final Year students, has been circulating. The Principal requested to table the following concerns to the Council.
Law College Principal, Dr Jayatissa de Costa P.C. said that the letter has not been signed by an office bearer of the Union, hence it is an invalid piece of paper.