No minister or Cabinet has authority to override law: CEJ

By Chathuranga Pradeep Samarawickrama  

While condemning the statement made by Cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardena, the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) today said no minister or Cabinet has the authority to override the law.  According to the statement made by the minister, the ‘Sri Lanka Legume’ tree (Crudia zeylanica), which blocked the construction of the Colombo-Kandy Expressway in the Daraluwa area of Veyangoda, was removed with Cabinet approval.  

As per Section 42 of the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance No. 2 of 1937, as amended No. 22 of 2009, “No person shall in any area remove, uproot, destroy, or cause any damage or injury to any plant which is for the time being included in Schedule V and is growing on the property of any other person or is growing in any public place.”  

The entire Cabinet that supported and approved this proposal has committed a legal offense that can be subjected to imprisonment of 2 to 5 years and a fine of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000,” the CEJ Chairman said.  

At a time when a social conversation is going on about the danger of people taking the law into their own hands, it is sad to see Cabinet ministers getting engaged in ultra vires activities that violate people’s environmental human rights.   Regardless of the nature or orientation of social discourses regarding the plant Crudia zeylanica, illegal interventions pose a formidable threat to the preservation of the rule of law, the CEJ added further.