September 01, Colombo (LNW): The Supreme Court has temporarily suspended proceedings on petitions challenging the Government’s proposed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, with a decision on whether the matter should be heard by the Court’s full sitting bench expected shortly.
The issue arose when the petitions came before a five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena. President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran, representing one of the petitioners, urged the Court to consider referring the case to a bench consisting of all serving Supreme Court judges.
Several other senior counsel representing petitioners supported the application, including President’s Counsel Saliya Pieris, Ali Sabry, Geoffrey Alagaratnam, Eraj de Silva, Srinath Perera, Anura Meddegoda and Maithri Gunaratne.
However, Solicitor General Viraj Dayaratne, appearing for the Attorney General, opposed the suggestion that the composition of the bench could be determined at the request of parties to the case. He argued that the Constitution places responsibility for deciding the number and composition of Supreme Court benches with the Chief Justice.
Referring specifically to Article 132(3), the Solicitor General maintained that the Chief Justice has the discretion to decide how many judges should sit on a particular matter and that such a decision cannot be directed by another party.
President’s Counsel Nigel Hatch, appearing for an intervening petitioner, also made submissions supporting the position that the authority to constitute a judicial bench rests with the Chief Justice.
After hearing the competing arguments, the Court decided to take a brief adjournment. Proceedings were suspended for 15 minutes, after which the bench was expected to deliver its ruling on the request for the petitions to be considered by all sitting Supreme Court judges.