The Hon. Sajith Premadasa - Leader of the Opposition
Sajith Premadasa, by a Question by Private Notice, asked the Government to clarify whether the Attorney-General’s office is constitutionally independent, including the role of the Constitutional Council under Article 41A in approving appointments. He sought assurances that the Attorney-General can perform prosecutorial, advisory and legislative-assistance functions free from political interference, and asked what safeguards exist under the Removal of Officers (Procedure) Act, No. 5 of 2002, against baseless allegations targeting the Attorney-General and the IGP. He further asked whether the Government recognizes an organized campaign against the Attorney-General’s official functions and what measures it will take to stop such campaigns and protect the office’s independence.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 QUESTION BY PRIVATE NOTICE
¶ 02 Assurance of independence and autonomy of the Office of the Attorney‑General:
¶ 03 1) Is the AG’s post an independent office? 2) Under Article 41A of the Constitution, is the AG appointed by the President only upon approval of the Constitutional Council? 3) Thus, is the AG’s independence safeguarded by constitutional checks and balances? 4) Has the Government ensured the AG can act independently, professionally, and free of political interference in prosecutorial, legislative‑assistance, and advisory functions? 5) Under the Removal of Officers (Procedure) Act, No. 5 of 2002, Section 3, what steps has the Government taken to prevent baseless allegations against the IGP and the AG? 6) Do you acknowledge an organized campaign of allegations targeting the AG’s official functions? What is the Government’s position? 7) What measures will the Government take to halt such campaigns and protect the AG’s independence?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 23 January 2026 ·No. 23290 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/14347
Cite as: The Hon. Sajith Premadasa - Leader of the Opposition. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 23 January 2026. No. 23290. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/14347