Is the gazetted “22” to correct an error in the 19th ammendment to the Constitution being hidden from the people because the terms of President Anura and “Malimawa” Parliament are 6 years?
Posted on April 2nd, 2025
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 Amendment to the Constitution 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 Amendment to the Constitution Bill has been gazetted and published on 18th of July 2024
under Article 78 of the Constitution with the approval of the Attorney General to correct the error in the Constitution.
The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution Bill seeks to correct the error in Article 83 of the Constitution as follows.
“Article 83 of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is hereby amended in paragraph (b)
thereof, by the substitution for the words “to over six years,”, of the words “to over five years,”
Accordingly, it is clear that the term of office of President Anura Dissanayake and the Malima Parliament is 6 years and has not been correctly amended to 5 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.
Translation of the Article
19වන ආණ්ඩුක්රම ව්යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයේ වරදක් නිවැරදි කිරීමට ගැසට් කළ 22 ජනතාවගෙන් සඟවන්නේ අනුර ජනාධිපතිගේ සහ “මාළිමා” පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ධූර කාල වසර 6ක් වන නිසාද?
http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2025/04/19-22-6.html?m=1
http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2025/04/is-gazetted-22-to-correct-error-in-19th.html?m=1
Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), AAL, Coordinator, Dr. Thilaka Padma Subasinghe Memorial Legal Education Program. (2025.03.31)