The SJB says that the President setting up of task forces saying one country, one law is akin to appointing a parallel government while the Ministry of Justice is taking action to minimize delays in litigations by expanding the judicial benches and digitalizing court processes.

Participating in the third reading debate on Budget 2022 under the expenditure heads of the Ministry of Justice SJB MP Eran Wickremaratne on Thursday said as per the constitutional provisions, the functions of the ministries should be carried out by the Cabinet of Ministers.

“We learned through the media that the Minister of Justice had resigned in protest against the appointment of a task force, ‘One Country One Law’ and the appointment of an unsuitable person for such task force which was uncalled for, it appears that a parallel government structure is being evolved.”

According to a report obtained from the Ministry of Justice, the number of court cases has increased from 775,617 in 2018 to 920,660 by 2020. Accordingly, it is observed that the number of cases in the courts of this country are increasing by about 10% annually, the MP said.

He said that the Attorney General’s Department has multiple roles and responsibilities. As one contradicts the other it is an obstacle to the independence and impartiality of that institution. The Attorney General is, on the one hand, is the Chief lawyer of the government and government departments, and on the other hand is the chief prosecutor. Accordingly, in his multiple roles the conflicts of interest are inevitable. The Attorney General himself appears in the Supreme Court, representing the Government on the constitutionality of the bills brought by the Government. It is the Attorney General who advises the government on the matters presenting to Parliament. Therefore, due to the multiple-role of the Attorney General’s Department, there is a huge potential for the AG’s department to become politicized. Under this backdrop, the MP stressed that Parliament has a responsibility to introduce a system that preserves the dignity of the Attorney General’s Department.

If the Attorney General’s Department continues to function in accordance with the current tasks assigned to it, it may lose its trust among the people. Therefore, the role of the AG as the Chief Prosecutor should be considered. The Attorney General recently withdrew a large number of cases of dozens of politicians. It was up to the courts to decide whether these people were guilty or not. Prosecuting politicians and later withdrawing them is something that does not happen with this frequency in other countries. This tarnishes the dignity of Parliament.

Therefore, if there is insufficient evidence in a case, the Attorney General’s Department should not rush to prosecute. The Attorney General who filed the case initially, following the change of a government goes to court and withdraw the case saying there was no evidence or on a technical basis is detrimental to the dignity of Parliament, the judiciary, the professionals and the country. Therefore, Wickremaratne urged the Minister of Justice to bring reforms regarding the responsibilities and roles of the Attorney General’s Department along with the legal reforms currently being carried out by the Ministry of Justice.

Hijaz Hezbollah, an Attorney-at-Law, has been detained for over 600 days under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Azath Salley was detained under the PTA without evidence for about nine months. Anaf Jazeem a teacher and a poet has been detained for 18 months. The Solicitor General told the Court that there was no objection to the grant of bail for Jazeem. These arrests and detentions are being made at the behest of the authorities without sufficient evidence, to intimidate, to silence and harass opponents.

Wickremaratne called on the Minister of Justice to focus his attention on amending the PTA which was originally brought as temporary measure which is used to keep in custody innocent people over long periods of time.