Will the law also be enforced against the powerful regardless of rank, and will it also apply to the constitutional interpretation errors committed/ done by former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, confirmed by the gazetted "22"? *

Will the law also be enforced against the powerful regardless of rank, and will it also apply to the constitutional interpretation errors committed/ done by former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, confirmed by the gazetted "22"? *

There is a discussion among scholars as to whether the "Malima" government, which has a majority of more than 2/3 of the members of Parliament, enforcing the law against those in power who have committed wrongdoings regardless of rank can enforce the law against former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya for misinterpreting the Constitution and that it is not correct to interpret the Constitution as a 5-year term of office for the presidency before 18.07.2024, while confirming that the 22nd Constitutional Amendment Bill published in the Gazette on 18.07.2024. The law should be enforced not only against the retired presidents for illegal acts committed during their terms of office. It should apply to all 3 branches of state: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. In Article 3 of the Constitution, sovereignty is in the People in the Republic of Sri Lanka and it is inalienable and sovereignty includes the ecxecutive, the legislative, the judicial powers and also fundamental rights and the franchise as enshrined in the constitution indicates the extent of the professional accountability, responsibility and duty of office holders. This article discusses whether the government, with a parliamentary majority of more than 2/3, can be able to enforce the law against former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya for not correctly interpreting the Constitution, while the 22nd Amendment of the constitution Bill published in the Gazette on 18.07.2024 confirms that the incorrectly interpreted Constitution as a 5-year presidential term similarly to the law implemented against Commissioner General of Prisons Thushara Upuldeniya and former President of the Court of Appeal Judge Bandula Karunaratne. The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution Bill has been published in the Gazette issued on 18.07.2024 with the approval of the Attorney General, amending Article 83(b) of the Constitution and amending the matters related to the term of office of the President from six years/6 to five years/5. The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution Bill has been published in the Gazette under Article 78 of the Constitution. (There are differences between the Sinhala and English texts of this bill. This is because there are also differences between the Sinhala and English texts of the original constitution. It should be discussed at length with reference to Articles 3 and 23 of the Constitution. It has not been discussed in this article.) The introduction of the 22nd Constitutional Amendment Bill makes it clear that the Constitution has not been amended in relation to the presidential term for 5 years. A President had publicly stated at a ceremony attended by heads of the judiciary and legal sector that it was an oversight by a certain legal scholar and that he would apologize to the people for it. It is also clear that former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya has misinterpreted the Constitution and interpreted the presidential term as 5 years. His future hopes cannot be said solely from his receiving the post of Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the United Nations upon retirement. It is also an irony of fate that former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, who was interpreted the Constitution wrongly regarding the presidential term has been revealed due to the 22nd Amendment Bill and has also received the appointment as Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations after his retirement. If former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya had interpreted the Constitution correctly in the cases which were brought before him regarding the presidential term, there would have been no need to gazette the 22nd Amendment of the constitution Bill to amend the the matters related to the term of office of the presidential term to 5 years on 18.07.2024 under Article 78 of the Constitution. The author of this article and another person who went to the Supreme Court to point out the constitutional errors regarding the presidential term were ordered to pay millions in court fees. On an earlier occasion, former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva had apologized to the public for a decision he had given. The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution Bill published in the Gazette issued on 18.07.2024 with the approval of the Attorney General which amends Article 83(b) of the Constitution and amends the matters related to term of office of the President from 6 years to 5 years, confirming that the interpretation of the term of office of the President in the Constitution by former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya as 5 years is incorrect. The Constitution is the supreme law of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and has been adopted in accordance with the mandate of the people to establish Sri Lanka as a democratic socialist republic state as guaranteeing freedom, equality, justice, fundamental human rights and independence of the judiciary of all the people. The executive, legislature and judiciary must act within the limits of the Constitution and interpreting the Constitution based on one’s own personal future aspirations is a violation of the affirmation/oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. It is still too early to say whether the "Malima" government will succeed in enforcing the law against former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, who misinterpreted the Constitution and led to the introduction of the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution Bill, just as the law was enforced against Commissioner General of Prisons Thushara Upuldeniya and former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Bandula Karunaratne or whether it is only imposed against those who have committed wrongdoing for some other selected purpose or purposes. Scholars should also discuss why the Article 83 of the Sinhala Constitution states that, among the provisions of the Constitution relating to the executive presidency, that is, Articles 30 to 41 of Chapter VII of the Constitution, only amendments relating to the presidential term, that is, Article 30.2 of the Constitution, must be approved by the people through a referendum. Article 83 of the Constitution does not state that it is necessary to obtain the approval of the people through a referendum to amend or repeal any other article relating to the Presidency other than Article 30.2 of the Constitution. That is, the only article related to the presidency included in Article 83 of the Constitution is Article 30.2. Article 3 of the Constitution, which refers to the sovereignty of the people, refers to the existence of the executive as a governing body, but not to the presidency. Although Article 4.b. of the Constitution mentions the president is elected by the people, that sub article is also not included in Article 83 of the Constitution. That is, Article 83 of the Constitution does not directly indicate that the approval of the people must be obtained through a referendum to amend the constitution other than Article 30.2 relating to the presidency. (This article does not intend to discuss this matter.) The third edition of the 11th law book which published by the author of this article is also being printed in a limited number of copies, so readers can request a copy of " ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 70වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව සංශෝධනයට 2002 ජනමතවිචාරණයක් අවශ්‍ය වීම, 2015 ජනමතවිචාරණයක් අවශ්‍ය නොවීම, සර්ව සාධාරණත්වයේ අයිතිවාසිකම සහ අධිකරණ තීරණ අනුගම්‍ය පූර්වාදර්ශය" " A referendum being required to amend Article 70 of the Constitution in 2002, a referendum not being required in 2015, right to equality and judicial precedent" ISBN 978-955-38965-6-8 which consists of 10 chapters including the judicial precedent, how the presidential election will be held in 6 years if "22" which was gazetted on 18.07.2024 after the Supreme Court orders imposed millions of rupees as court fees to amend Article 83 of the Constitution does not become a law and according to which language of the Sinhala and English Constitutions, the Supreme Court should interpret the Constitution according to the sovereignty of the Republic of Sri Lanka. Also, a legal education program discussing about how the presidential election will be held in 6 years if "22" which was gazetted to correct the errors in the constitution after the Supreme Court orders that imposed millions of rupees as court fees does not become a law and "Who made the mistake in the Constitution that led to the Gazetting of "22", will be held on Saturday, 21 June 2025 from 9.00 am - 3.00 pm at the Dr. Thilaka Padma Subasinghe Memorial Legal Education Program Lecture Hall, No 09, Colombo Road, Handapangoda, and the opportunity to reserve seats in advance has also been made available. * Translation of the article තරාතිරම නොබලා බලවතුන්ට එරෙහිවද නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙද්දී ගැසට් කළ "22" නිසා තහවුරු වන හිටපු අගවිනිසුරුවරයෙකුවන ජයන්ත ජයසූරිය මහතා විසින් කළ ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා අර්ථනිරූපණ වැරදි සම්බන්ධයෙන්ද නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙයිද? http://neethiyalk.blogspot.com/2025/06/22_13.html?m=1 Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna B.Sc(Col), PGDC(Col), AAL, Coordinator, Dr. Thilaka Padma Subasinghe Memorial Legal Education Program. Tel. 0712063394 09.06.2025