Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), AAL, Coordinator, Dr. Thilaka Padma Subasinghe Memorial Legal Education Program.

Some people have forgotten that a President said at the opening of the New Court Complex in Galle that there is an error in the 19th Constitutional Amendment brought in 2015 regarding  the presidential and parliamentary terms of office and that it was due to an oversight by a certain legal expert and that he would apologize to the people for it.


Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe, other judges and government officials were seated in that audience.

Also, the 22nd Constitution Amendment Bill has been gazetted under Article 78 of the Constitution with the approval of the Attorney General to correct the error in the Constitution.

Accordingly, it is clear that the terms of office of the President Anura Dissanayake and “Malimawa” Parliament is 6 years. Because when a Constitution Amendment Bill was gazetted under Article 78 of the Constitution, it (Bill) was also the opinion of the Attorney General.

Accordingly, the position of the Attorney General is that there is an error in Article 83 of the current Constitution and it should be corrected.

The Attorney General noticed the error in Article 83 of the Constitution after several citizens filed cases in the Supreme Court about this error and paid lakhs of ruppess as court fees for it.

The important legal and social question that arises is whether Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya refrained from studying the error in the Constitution that led to the introducing/gazetteing of the 22nd Constitutional Amendment Bill because he will be entitled to the position of Permanent Representative to the United Nations upon retirement.

The people cannot forget how a certain Chief Justice said “I’m sorry” after his retirement filled with shock and regret for the judgement he gave along with other Supreme Court judges.


In such situations, the people should understand the need to enact laws to enable reviewing the judicial orders given earlier by judges when these judges take up government positions after retirement (except for positions in independent commissions).


After the appointment of retired Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya as the permanent representative of the United Nations, the good image of the judges and judicial independence can be preserved in association with the sovereignty of the people through such a law amendment.

It would be good for democracy if free thinkers deeply studied the appointment of former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya as Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations after his retirement, the impact on the independence of the judiciary, the solutions, and the 22nd Constitutional Amendment Bill brought to correct an error in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Translatiin of the Article
* හිටපු අගවිනිසුරු ජයන්ත ජයසූරිය මහතා විශ්‍රාම යෑමෙන් පසු එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ ලංකාවේ නිත්‍ය නියෝජිත ධූරය ලැබීම, අධිකරණයේ ස්වාධීනත්වයට කරන බලපෑම, විසඳුම් සහ 19යේ වැරැද්දක් නිවැරදි කිරීමට ගෙනා 22…!
http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2025/03/blog-post_25.html?m=1

http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-appointment-of-former-chief-justice.html?m=1

Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), AAL, Coordinator, Dr. Thilaka Padma Subasinghe Memorial Legal Education Program. (2025.03.23)