Parliamentary tradition not breached when presenting Bills - Speaker

Sandasen Marasinghe, Irangika Range and Disna Mudalige

Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa yesterday observed in Parliament that the Constitution or the Parliamentary tradition has not been breached when the 21 Bills were presented to Parliament on March 8.

The Speaker said the minutes should be handed over to the Secretary General of Parliament to be gazetted within an adequate period of time. The Speaker made these observations in connection with the concerns of opposition members.

The Speaker said if he was vested with powers to punish for this flaw, he would have punished the personnel.

The Speaker stated that the Constitution or the Parliamentary tradition has not set rules to table the Bills at the time of presenting them in Parliament.

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe questioned the legality of the 21 Bills stating that those were not properly tabled on the day they were presented. He observed only 15 Bills were tabled in all three languages when the House was adjourned on March 8. He asked to call a Party leaders' meeting to discuss this matter.

DNA MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said he did not receive all the Bills on March 8, but they were delivered to him at midnight the same day.

Chief Government Whip and Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said the English language copy of all 21 Bills and some of the Sinhala language Bills was tabled on the same day.

The Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa: It was wrong that the Finance Ministry delayed until last date.

Chief Government Whip and Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said that an Attorney General for Parliament should be appointed as it was discussed earlier to settle such issues.

Leader of the House and Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva stated that petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court against more than 15 Bills.

It means those who are interested in have taken action in connection with the Bills. However, we have to discuss this matter at the Party Leaders' meeting. Opposition members Lakshman Kiriella, Sunil Handunnetti, Ajith P Perera, Joseph Michael Perera, R Yogarajan, S Sumanthiram, Eran Wickramaratna also spoke.