Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Hon. Bimal Rathnayake invoked Standing Order 83, arguing that personal conduct of judges or judicial officers should not be raised in Parliament except by substantive motion. He stated that transfers and discipline of judges fall under the Independent Judicial Service Commission, chaired by the Chief Justice, and that criticism of such matters targets the judiciary and the JSC rather than the Government. He requested review under the Standing Orders and, if necessary, by the Speaker, contending that such statements should not be made under parliamentary privilege.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson of Committees, Standing Order 83 provides that the personal conduct of the President, Acting President, Members of Parliament, Judges, or those holding judicial office shall not be raised except upon a substantive motion. Matters of judges’ transfers and discipline fall under the Independent Judicial Service Commission. The former Chief Justice chaired it; the current Chief Justice too was unanimously approved by the Constitutional Council. Therefore, such criticisms target the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the JSC, not the Government. I request that this be reviewed under the Standing Orders and, if necessary, by the Hon. Speaker, as such statements should not be made under parliamentary privilege.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 20 August 2025 ·No. 1756378373069107 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- 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/16176
Cite as: Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 20 August 2025. No. 1756378373069107. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/16176