SRI LANKA'S LAWS
....laws that have also provided a legal framework for
torture,
rape,
extra judicial killings,
censorship and disinformation, and systematic violation of human rights with
impunity ...
Introduction
The Sri Lanka's current legal system is based on Roman Dutch common law,
interpreted by judges trained in English Law, and modified by Statutes often imported from
England by the British colonial ruler.
In 1972, twenty four years after independence from British rule the dominant
Sinhala Buddhist majority gave itself an authochchonous constitution, renamed the island
as 'Sri Lanka' (the old Sinhala name) and ensured that the Constitution secured a
dominant role for Buddhism.
Crimes were defined exhaustively by the Penal Code of 1883 and criminal procedure was
regulated by the Criminal Procedure Code. However, increasingly, the normal laws of the
land were suspended and rule under Emergency Regulations has become the norm. These
periods of emergency rule include the following:
(1) 12 August 1953 - 11 September 1953;
(2) 27 May 1958 - 26 March 1959;
(3) 25 September 1959 - 03 December 1959;
(4) 17 April 1961 - 04 April 1963;
(5) 05 March 1964 - 04 April 1964;
(6) 08 January 1966 - 07 December 1966;
(7) 19 December 1966 - 18 January 1969;
(8) 26 October 1970 - 25 November 1970;
(9) 16 March 1971 - 15 February 1977;
(10) 29 November 1978 - 28 May 1979;
(11) 03 July 1979 - 27 December 1979;
(12) 16 July 1980 - 15 August 1980;
(13) 03 June 1981 - 09 June 1981;
(14) 17 August 1981 - 16 January 1982;
(15) 20 October 1982 - 20 January 1983;
(16) 18 May 1983 - 11 January 1989;
(17) 20 June 1989 to the present.
Article 155 of the Constitution provides the formal basis for the declaration of a
state of emergency in Sri Lanka. It empowers the President of the Republic to make
emergency regulations under the Public
Security Ordinance or under any other law for the time being in force relating to
public security. Such regulations may over-ride all existing law except provisions of the
constitution. The Ordinance also provides that no suit or prosecution can be initiated
against any person for acts done or purported to be done under emergency regulations or
orders except with the consent of the Attorney-General
The Public Security Ordinance is a
pre-independence law enacted in 1947 which allows the President, during the existence or
imminence of a public emergency, to declare a state of emergency if he is of the opinion
that it is expedient to do so in the interests of public security or the preservation of
public order or for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the
community. By a constitutional amendment introduced in 1987 such a declaration was
made immune from challenge in any court of law.
Emergency Regulations have been made on several occasions under the Public Security
Ordinance. Until 1988 such regulations automatically lapsed at the end of one month from
the date of proclamation of the emergency, and had to be re-enacted even if the emergency
was extended by parliamentary approval; but a 1988 amendment to the Ordinance dispensed
with that requirement.
The most important of these regulations are the Emergency (Miscellaneous Provisions and
Powers) Regulations (EMPPR) These provide inter alia for detention without charge or trial
on renewable detention orders. (An earlier version of the EMPPR allowed the police to take
possession of and bury or cremate any corpse without informing the relatives of the dead
person, and to dispense with inquests. That provision was repealed in February 1990.) The Emergency Regulations have been amended several
times.
In January 1994 following a period of considerable acrimony between the government and
some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active in the voluntary sector, the government
issued the Monitoring of Receipts and Disbursements of Non Governmental Organisations
Regulations No. 1 of 1993 which sought to bring NGOs under greater state control. Under
these regulations, all NGOs having an annual income of over Rs. 50,000 are obliged to
register with the Director of Social Services and to file detailed statements of accounts
including particulars of their sources of income and disbursements, and names and
addresses of persons benefitting from such disbursements on pain of imprisonment for up to
five years and a fine of up to Rs. 50,000.
The Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act
1979 (PTA) has also been widely used. Originally enacted for a period of three years,
the Act was amended and made permanent in 1982. It provides for the detention for up to 18
months, without trial and without access to lawyers or relatives, of any person suspected
of a wide range of offences including murder, kidnapping, criminal intimidation, robbery
of state property, possession of unlicensed weapons, incitement to communal disharmony,
mutilation of street signs, etc.
In a significant departure from ordinary criminal law, the Act allows
confessions made to the police admissible in evidence and shifts the burden of proof in
certain cases to the defence. It also provides for retrospective application of its
provisions so that actions which were committed before it came into force are also
punishable as offences.
In addition, several Curfew Orders were made under the EMPPR from time to time. Other
measures enacted during the current emergency include:
(1) The Mobilisation and Supplementary Forces Act 1985, which provides for compulsory
conscription of all sections of the population and enables the setting up of a National
Auxiliary Force, para-military forces, the Home Guard and a Civil Defence Force
(2) The Indemnity (Amendment) Act 1988, which provides immunity from prosecution for
government servants, security force personnel and other law enforcement officials for any
actions done by them "in good faith" in the period between 1 August 1977 and 16
December 1988
(3) Declarations/Derogations A number of Proclamations have been issued by the
President to cover each of the four states of emergency mentioned above.
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