JHU bill to repeal 13A

The Jathika Hela Urumaya yesterday tabled a constitutional amendment to repeal the 13th Amendment to the constitution and remove the provincial council system as a private member’s bill.

The bill was presented by JHU Gampaha District MP Athuraliye Rathana Thero and seconded by UNP MP Palitha Range Bandara.  If enacted, it will be the 19th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution.  The JHU bill aims to repeal the 13th Amendment to the constitution saying it was enacted consequent to the Indo Lanka Accord being entered into in 1987 under duress in defiance of the sovereignty of the people of Sri Lanka. The bill also states that the Supreme Court did not approve the provisions of the 13th amendment Bill as being consistent with the Constitution because only four judges of the Supreme Court out of nine held that the approval of the people at a referendum was not required to enact the 13th Amendment. “Five judges held that at least one or more of the provisions of the Bill was in violation of the Constitution and therefore required the approval of the people at a referendum.  The JHU bill said the 13th Amendment in Article 154A(3) provides for the establishment of one administrative unit for two or more Provinces, to accommodate the unlawful undertaking given by the then President of Sri Lanka in the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord to establish one administrative unit for the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka on the erroneous and false basis that the Northern and Eastern Provinces form part of the homeland of one single ethnic and /or linguistic community as claimed by the separatist forces. It added that the 13th Amendment has sought to abdicate the legislative power vested in Parliament and the Executive power vested in the President by the division of governmental power and thereby offended the unitary character of the State.