21st Amendment in Sri Lankan Constitution

Vibhanshu Jain **

Sri Lanka is an island Nation present in South Asia, also known as Democratic Socialist Republic under the aegis of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, governed by a semi-presidential system, with a mixture of a Presidential and Parliamentary system. It has been surrounded by political crisis since long. It requires two-third majority and approval in national wide referendum. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Sri Lanka a “flawed democracy” in 2019. Sri Lanka is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Sri Lanka is both head of state and head of government, and it relies on a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament. Common to many democracies, Sri Lankan government has three branches :

• Executive: The President of Sri Lanka is the head of state; the commander in chief of the armed forces; chief executive, and is popularly elected for a five-year term as per Article 30 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka. The President heads the Cabinet and appoints Ministers from elected members of Parliament. Following passage of the 19th Constitutional Amendment, 2015, the President has two terms, which previously stood at no term limit.
• Legislative: Article 62 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that the Parliament is a unicameral 225-member legislature with 196 members elected in multi-seat constituencies and 29 elected by proportional representation. Members are elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term. The President may summon, suspend, or end a legislative session and dissolve Parliament any time after four and a half years. The Parliament reserves the power to make all laws. The President’s deputy and head of government, the prime minister, leads the ruling party in Parliament and shares many executive responsibilities, mainly in domestic affairs.
• Judiciary: Sri Lanka’s judiciary consists of a Supreme Court – the highest and final superior court of record, a Court of Appeal, High Courts and a number of subordinate courts under Article 105 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

Present Constitutional Amendment Amid Economic Crisis

The 21^st Constitutional Amendment, 2021 is been proposed in the Parliament amid political crises. The 21st Amendment is expected to annul the 20th Amendment, which gave unfettered powers to President after abolishing the 19th Amendment, a provision that had made the Parliament powerful over the President.

• The amendment is likely to reduce the Presidency to a ceremonial position, retaining the powers of the President on all three armed forces while handing over almost all other key powers pertaining to governance, and cabinet ministers to the Prime Minister.
• There are two proposed amendments in the form of Private Member’s Bills that look at transferring powers of making key appointments from the President to the Constitutional Council.
• Both proposals agree that the Council should comprise of both MPs and citizens not affiliated to political parties.
• Additionally, the President would be required to act on the Prime Minister’s advice to determine the scope and functions of ministries and appoint ministers, deputy ministers and state ministers.
• The two proposals, however, differ on the way the President will hold over the Parliament.
• According to the new proposal, the President will be elected by the Parliament for a term of five years and can be removed by a no-confidence vote.
• The President will also lose the power of dissolving a Parliament session at will.
• The second proposal, on the other hand, allows the President to dissolve or prorogue the Parliament at any time after 2.5 years of its first sitting.
• It also calls for the establishment of a National Security Council to formulate policy and monitor implementation of policy relating to national security and the Council will be chaired by the Prime Minister.
• Additionally, the Bill proposes amending Article 70 to allow the parliament to pass resolutions by majority vote to dissolve the parliament before its term expires.

There is a culture in Sri Lankan politics that is every new political party would bring a new amendment to the constitution to gain power either in the Presidential Office or in the Prime Minister’s Office, it has been seen over the elections like the 19^th Constitutional Amendment which is said to be the masters stroke in applying democracy by forbidding the power of president to the limit and permitting them to the Prime Minister.

 What was the 19^th Amendment?

The enactment of the historic 19th Amendment in April 2015 was rushed by the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. It had removed the powers of the President to sack the Prime Minister at his discretion. By amending the Articles 46(2) and Article 48 of the Sri Lankan Constitution, the cabinet ministers could have been dismissed only if the Prime Minister ceased to hold office by death, resignation or otherwise, or only if the Parliament reject a statement of government policy or the budget or if the Parliament passes a vote of no confidence against the Government. The amendment also restricted the President’s powers to dismiss Cabinet ministers as he was required to act on the advice of the Prime Minister.

 What was the 20^th Amendment?

The 20th Amendment to the Constitution passed in October 2020 was also controversial. The 20th amendment, which replaced the 19th Amendment, had again enhanced the executive powers of the President in an unprecedented way besides abolishing the independent constitutional council for a Parliamentary Council. Passed with a two-thirds majority, the criticisms was that it could derail the balance between the legislature, executive and judiciary by centralizing maximum powers into the hands of one individual.

Conclusion

The 20^th constitutional amendment can be said to be about to bring political stability in the country and removing the power of execution from president and limiting it only to the ceremonial post and as commander in head of armed forces of the nation. It helps in stabilizing the Government by making a single executive in the State.  

**The author is pursuing his BA LLB from Chaudhary Charan Singh University Meerut.

Disclaimer:  The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and not to the Jurisedge Academy.

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