Update:Three Commissioners of the five-member RTI Commission appointed by President

Three Commissioners of the five-member Right to Information (RTI) Commission were appointed today by President Maithripala Sirisena.

The newly-appointed Commission members are former civil servant Mahinda Gammanpila (Chairman), attorney-at-law S. G. Punchihewa (civil society nominee) and attorney-at-law Kishali Pinto Jayawardena (nominee of the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka, the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka, the Free Media Movement, the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association and the Sri Lanka Press Institute).  The quorum for any meeting of the Commission is three.

Two other proposed members—law academic N Selvakkumaran and retired Supreme Court Judge Saleem Marsoof—declined to take up positions on the basis of respectively holding public office and judicial office. Mr Selvakumaran is attached to the University of Colombo while Justice Marsoof will depart for Fiji as a judge shortly.

Two further appointments will need to be made as the question as to whether the Commission needs all five members to function is an issue. The Right to Information Act precludes an MP or Provincial Council member, or any person holding public or judicial office or any other office of profit from being appointed to the RTI Commission. It states that the Commission shall consist of five persons appointed by the President upon the recommendation of the Constitutional Council. “In making such recommendations, the Constitutional Council shall recommend one person nominated by each of the following organisations or categories of organisations:- (a) Bar Association of Sri Lanka which shall nominate an Attorney-at-Law of eminence or a Legal Academic in consultation with Attorneys -at-Law and Legal Academia; (b) organizations of publishers, editors and media persons; (c) other civil society organizations.”