by Saman Indrajith

A procedural dispute erupted in Parliament yesterday over a proposed meeting between representatives of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) and Members of Parliament, with Leader of the House Bimal Ratnayake rejecting a request by Opposition and SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa to facilitate the participation of all 225 MPs.

Premadasa told Parliament that a BASL delegation was due to visit Parliament for a briefing on the failure to fill existing vacancies in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal and urged the Speaker to make arrangements for both Government and Opposition MPs to participate. He said the request had originated from the BASL and that he had already informed Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne of the proposed meeting.

Premadasa said he had made the request to the Speaker on July 31 and wanted all MPs, irrespective of party affiliation, to be informed of the engagement.

However, Ratnayake objected to the proposed arrangement, arguing that a meeting involving all MPs could not be organised outside established parliamentary procedures. He said the Opposition Leader did not have the authority to convene or summon all Members of Parliament to a meeting with an external organisation, adding that such an arrangement would first have to be discussed and agreed upon by the Parliamentary Business Committee and receive the consent of the Leader of the House.

“No individual or external organisation has the authority to summon all Members of Parliament,” Ratnayake said, stressing that Parliament had not granted permission for a professional organisation to convene a meeting of all MPs.

He also criticised media reports concerning the proposed meeting, saying announcements about such an engagement could create the impression that all MPs had been formally invited when the necessary parliamentary procedures had not been followed.

Premadasa, however, maintained that he had merely requested the Speaker to inform all MPs of the proposed meeting and had not claimed the authority to convene Parliament.

MP Mano Ganesan intervened during the exchange, pointing out that Premadasa had only asked the Speaker to notify all 225 MPs and that the question of authority was a separate matter.

Ratnayake referred to an earlier request by Premadasa to the Speaker concerning a meeting with the BASL, saying the issue had already been considered by the Business Committee. He said the BASL had subsequently issued a public statement on August 4 rejecting the approach, stating that the Association was not a political tool of any party and questioning the authority of the Opposition Leader to allocate a date and time on its behalf without consultation.

According to Ratnayake, the Business Committee had also recognised that the procedure followed in arranging the proposed engagement was not consistent with established parliamentary practice.

The Leader of the House further warned that allowing one professional organisation to address all MPs, outside the established procedure, could create demands from numerous other organisations seeking similar access to Parliament.

He said the Opposition Leader was free to make arrangements for representatives of trade unions or professional organisations to meet MPs belonging to his own party, but arrangements involving all Members would have to follow the prescribed parliamentary process.

Premadasa’s request was prompted by concerns over the continued vacancies in the higher judiciary. He said the BASL delegation intended to brief MPs on the failure to fill vacancies in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal and urged that Government MPs also be given an opportunity to participate in the discussion.

The dispute thus centred not on whether MPs could engage with the BASL, but on the procedure through which an external professional body could formally meet all Members of Parliament.

Ratnayake maintained that any such meeting must first be considered through the relevant parliamentary mechanisms, while the Opposition argued that informing MPs of a meeting did not amount to summoning them or bypassing parliamentary procedure.