The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House of Parliament
Bimal Rathnayake stated that once the Speaker has delivered a ruling, Standing Orders do not permit further debate on it, though the Government accepted the Speaker’s discretion to allow discussion given the importance of the matter. He said the Government was ready to debate the motion if it complied with the Constitution and Standing Orders, but procedural requirements for presenting parliamentary business must be followed. He urged Members not to create a precedent of continuing to argue after a Speaker’s ruling.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I wish to make two points.
¶ 02 First, as we understand, once the Speaker has delivered a Ruling, there is no room under the Standing Orders to debate it. However, you have allowed some space because this is an important matter. As a Government, we have stated that we are ready to debate this Motion at any time. Our only concern is whether it is consistent with the Standing Orders and the Constitution; that is your responsibility, Hon. Speaker. If you rule that it cannot be entertained as a No-confidence Motion under the Constitution and Standing Orders, that is a question of parliamentary practice and law. If they bring it as a different Motion under proper procedure, we have no objection.
¶ 03 Second, Parliament has procedures for presenting business. Attempts to introduce matters disregarding procedure cannot be accepted. Please, play by the rules — by the Constitution, the Standing Orders, and the Speaker’s directives. If so, there is no problem; as Government we are ready to debate at any time.
¶ 04 Finally, regarding your Ruling, do not set a practice of continuing to argue after a Ruling. Parliament has no such power.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 10 September 2025 ·No. 1758017450079419 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House of Parliament. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 10 September 2025. No. 1758017450079419. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/10652