The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka
Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka raised a procedural issue regarding the appointment of Acting Ministers while the President was overseas, citing Section 2(a) of the Interpretation Ordinance, which includes persons duly appointed to act for a Minister within the definition of “Minister.” He asked the Speaker to reconsider the earlier rejection of a no-confidence motion against an Acting Minister on the basis that Acting Ministers lacked ministerial authority, and to clarify whether that motion should have been accepted as in order.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, before we proceed to Oral Answers, please allow me one and a half minutes to draw your attention to a matter.
¶ 02 His Excellency the President is overseas. The Presidential Media Division has announced that three Ministers have been appointed as Acting Ministers for three Ministries. I wish to draw your attention to Section 2(a) of the Interpretation Ordinance:
¶ 03 “When used in relation to any subject or function of the Government, ‘Minister’ means the Minister to whom the subject or function has been assigned by the President, and includes a person duly appointed to act for such Minister.”
¶ 04 Accordingly, the President has appointed an Acting Minister for Defence. When we moved a motion of no-confidence, you rejected it saying that Acting Ministers do not hold ministerial authority. We did not bring that motion due to any personal issue with him; we brought it in good faith. Do you now accept that our no-confidence motion was in order?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 23 September 2025 ·No. 1758876121024768 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Gayantha Karunathilleka. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 23 September 2025. No. 1758876121024768. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/15469