Columns

By Sandun Jayawardana

It is not often that both government and opposition MPs find common ground on an issue. Parliament’s final sitting day before the National New Year holidays, however, was an exception as both sides stood united against what they saw as an attempt by Sri Lanka Law College authorities to disregard an order made by the legislature.  

It was Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara who first brought the matter to the Speaker’s attention on Tuesday, noting that no action had been taken to suspend the decision taken by the Council of Legal Education to make English the mandatory medium of examination at Sri Lanka Law College. This is despite Parliament overwhelmingly defeating the gazette containing the new rules on March 21 by 113 votes to 1.

Mr. Jayasekara said Law College students were yet to be notified that the decision to hold examinations only in English had been suspended and that they can sit for examinations in Sinhala and Tamil as well. He said there was a question of whether Parliament’s decision had been conveyed by the Justice Ministry Secretary to the Law College authorities, though two weeks had elapsed since Parliament voted against the motion.

The Law College was due to close for the National New Year holidays today, April 4, and would only reopen on April 24 – the day examinations begin, the MP said. He asked Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to intervene to stop officials at the College from acting arbitrarily and going ahead with preventing students from sitting the examinations in their native languages.

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara, who now sits independently as a member of the Uththara Lanka Sabhagaya, said he was raising a privilege issue on the matter. “There is an attempt underway not to implement Parliament’s decision by various indirect means. As such, I ask that the Law College Principal be summoned before Parliament’s Privileges Committee,” he urged the Speaker.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Chaminda Wijesiri said any decision by the Speaker would be rendered meaningless if the House did not take action against the Law College authorities for ignoring Parliament’s vote defeating the gazette. He, too, urged the Speaker to summon the principal before Parliament and question him on the matter.

Chipping in, SLPP MP and Freedom People’s Alliance member Dilan Perera pointed out the gazette was defeated with both government and the opposition MPs voting against it, while Speaker Abeywardena was presiding. “Yet, Parliament’s decision had still not been implemented. In such a scenario, who does one complain to if not the Speaker,” he asked.

Blaming the Justice Ministry for not conveying Parliament’s decision to the Council of Legal Education and to the Law College, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa said students who were to be officially informed of Parliament’s decision by Law College authorities, continued to be denied the right to sit the examination in their mother tongues.

He claimed that many students had not registered to sit for the examination owing to the decision to conduct it only in English.

“Parliament is supreme and all institutions in the country are bound by law to implement its decisions. Yet we now have a situation where an examination is to be held based on the regulation that was defeated by 113 votes to 1 in this House,” the opposition leader noted, saying there was an attempt to throw Parliament’s order “into the dustbin.”

House Leader and Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said he agreed with the MPs that Parliament’s decision must be conveyed by the Justice Ministry and then implemented by the Law College authorities. “This is not just an issue of one MP’s privileges being violated. We had 113 MPs voting for it. So, it amounts to a violation of the privileges of all those MPs and the entire House.”

He said the Speaker could check whether Parliament’s decision had been properly conveyed to the Justice Ministry and whether the Ministry had then passed it on as directed to the Law College.

Opposition Leader Premadasa, though, was not satisfied. He insisted there was a conspiracy to disregard Parliament’s decision and requested that either the Law College Principal be summoned before the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Justice that was to convene that day to demand an explanation or for the decision of Parliament to be directly handed to the principal after summoning him before the Committee.

Mr. Premajayantha said the first thing to investigate was whether the decision had been properly conveyed to those concerned. “There are still two more weeks to go before the Law College reopens. There are enough ways to convey Parliament’s order to them through modern technology. The media, too, have widely reported that the gazette was defeated,” he pointed out.

The lengthy back and forth on the issue finally ended when Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapakse stressed that the House needed to move on with the day’s main proceedings.

Parliament reconvenes at 9.30 am on April 25.