Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House of Parliament
Only a Cabinet Minister or the Prime Minister can present reports concerning the Ministries of Defence or Digital Economy, and a Deputy Minister’s defeat in a No-Confidence Motion would have no legal effect on the Government. Referring to the Speaker’s ruling that such a motion cannot be brought against a Deputy Minister, he said the Government was prepared to face any other permissible motion of that nature.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, let me add: only a Cabinet Minister or the Prime Minister can present reports relating to the Ministry of Defence or the Ministry of Digital Economy. A Deputy Minister cannot. A Deputy Minister has responsibilities, yes. Suppose he loses a No-Confidence Motion; it has no legal effect on the Government. By contrast, a No-Confidence Motion against a Minister affects the Government. Therefore, even if a Deputy Minister were to “lose,” there is no legal binding effect.
¶ 02 Thus, in line with your ruling that a No-Confidence Motion cannot be brought, bring any other motion like that against Mervyn Silva; we as the Government are ready to face it.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Thursday, 11 September 2025 ·No. 1758278142029989 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: 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, 11 September 2025. No. 1758278142029989. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/1076