The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Arguing on a point of procedure, Bimal Rathnayake said Standing Orders 31 to 37 should be read together in governing parliamentary questions. He maintained that oral questions must follow the Order Paper and that supplementary questions under Standing Order 33(1) must be confined to clarifying the given answer without introducing new matters. He urged the House to proceed with scheduled business, including Votes of Condolence, and said parliamentary time should not be used for unrelated questions.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, we must read Standing Orders 31 to 37 as a whole. They collectively govern Questions, and 33(1) on supplementaries is linked to 32. Today we also have Votes of Condolence and families present in the gallery; we should proceed.
¶ 02 Standing Order 31 allows questions to the Prime Minister on public affairs and to Ministers on subjects assigned to them. Standing Order 32 sets the procedure for oral questions as per the Order Paper and calls by the Speaker. Standing Order 33(1) then limits supplementaries to not introduce new matter and only to elucidate the answer. You cannot isolate 31 to override 33. The basics must be understood.
¶ 03 Therefore, one cannot ask any question at will during Oral Answers; only supplementaries relevant to the listed question are allowed. Even with Minister’s consent there are limits; parliamentary time cannot be wasted.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Friday, 6 June 2025 ·No. 1750753418078417 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 June 2025. No. 1750753418078417. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/28210