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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