COLOMBO, Nov 7: Undeterred by the Rajapaksa government’s move to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, the constitution bench headed by her has declared several key government bills unconstitutional.

Parliament Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa read out the court’s “determination” in the house on Tuesday.

The court had stipulated that the government should get two-thirds majority to push the controversial clauses through. In at least one case it had said that the government should go for a referendum, in addition to getting a two-thirds majority.

The bills in question are the controversial Divi Neguma (Upliftment of Life) bill, the Appropriation bill, and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) amendment bill.

Divi Neguma bill

On the Divi Neguma bill, which takes away from the provincial councils all poverty alleviation programmes and vests them in a central government department under the minister for economic development, the court said the governor of the Tamil-speaking Northern Province could not give assent to the bill in the absence of an elected provincial council, unless the bill was passed with a two-thirds majority.

The court said it would be unconstitutional to put money in the Divi Neguma Fund, circumventing the Consolidating Fund of Sri Lanka. All monies will have to be deposited in the Consolidated Fund and disbursed from it.

In the determination on the Appropriation bill, the court said it was unconstitutional to give the Treasury (Finance) Secretary power to raise funds without the approval of parliament. In the determination on the Code of Criminal Procedure, the court turned down the provision to detain a person without a warrant for 48 hours instead of 24 hours as now. It recommended a two-thirds majority to pass this section.

Govt Unafraid

The Rajapaksa government does not appear to be worried by these rulings because it has two-thirds majority in parliament.

Since it had won all provincial elections recently it could even go for a referendum to vindicate itself.