The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Hon. Bimal Rathnayake cited Standing Order 92(2)(a) to argue that points of order must be limited to procedural matters and not used to raise unrelated incidents. He warned that misuse of one-minute points of order could disrupt parliamentary business, asked the Secretariat to guide the Chair and House accordingly, and stated that the Opposition was responsible for delaying the start of the Committee Stage.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, let me read Standing Order 92(2)(a):
¶ 02 “When raising a point of order, a Member shall not speak for more than one minute and shall not speak on a matter under consideration.”
¶ 03 An MP may raise a point of order at any time; that is true, and it takes precedence. But it must be a point of order — not that a bus broke down, a bridge collapsed, or a train derailed. That is why 92(2)(a) exists. “Point of order” is the heading. If all 225 Members start one‑minute “points of order” of this kind, Parliament cannot function. Therefore, this is not discrimination. We also request the Secretariat to guide the House and the Chair appropriately in such situations. We could not start the Committee Stage at 10.30 a.m. today; the Opposition must take responsibility.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 4 March 2025 ·No. 1742359468086980 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 4 March 2025. No. 1742359468086980. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/10315