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Drafting new constitution : Justice Ministry seeks public’s views

19 Oct 2020

By Sarah Hannan  The nine-member expert committee appointed to draft a new constitution, headed by President’s Counsel (PC) Romesh de Silva, yesterday (18) issued a notice inviting public proposals under 12 topics. “A new constitution is to be drafted to replace the Second Republican Constitution of Sri Lanka, and we are inviting the general public to submit their ideas or views under the topics of; nature of state, fundamental rights, language, directive of principles of state policy, the executive (president/Cabinet of Ministers/public service), the legislature, franchise and elections including referenda, decentralisation/devolution of power/power sharing, the judiciary, public finance, public security, and any other area of interest not specified in the notice,” Minister of Justice Ali Sabry noted. The committee, which functions under the Ministry of Justice, requested that the submission be made on A4-sized paper, be typewritten, and could be submitted in Sinhala, Tamil, or English before 30 November 2020. The typewritten submissions are to be sent through email to expertscommpublic@yahoo.com or through registered post addressed to: Secretary, Experts Committee to Draft New Constitution, Room No. 32 (Block 2), BMICH, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7. The expert committee to draft a new constitution was appointed in early September by the Cabinet of Ministers, and comprises Romesh de Silva PC, Manohara de Silva PC, Gamini Marapana PC, Sanjeewa Jayawardena PC, Samantha Ratwatte PC, Prof. Nadeema Kamurdeen, Prof. G.H. Peiris, Prof. Wasantha Seneviratne, and Dr. A. Sarveswaran.  


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