Constitutional Court needed to uphold credibility of judicial system: PM

11 December 2015 04:04 pm Views - 4025

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said today a separate Constitutional Court should be established to uphold the confidence of the people in the judicial system as politicization of the judiciary in the last decade had led to a loss of public confidence in the judicial system.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe expressed these views while delivering the 12th Sujata Jayawardena memorial oration organised by the Alumni Association of the Colombo University on “Strengthening Democratic Institutions” at the BMICH in Colombo.

The Premier said politicization of the judiciary had been an obstacle to enshrining the Constitution as the supreme law and declaring all other laws which are inconsistent with the Constitution as invalid.

“When establishing a separate Constitutional Court, we have to consider two issues. The first is the tenure of the Judges. Should it be decreed by an age limit or a time period? The second would be a possible method of ensuring the independence of the Constitutional Court,’ he said.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said a long drawn out terrorist war and the attempts to repress the opposition in recent times had led to the weakening of many of the democratic institutions such as the judiciary, political parties, the clergy, the media and civil society.

Referring to the media freedom in Sri Lanka, Mr. Wickremesinghe said unbiased reporting by the State owned media and the upholding of media principles by the private media through an effective media complaints commission and an Independent Broadcasting Commission was a key to restoring media freedom in the country. (Ajith Siriwardana)