Sumanthiran concerned over limiting access to justice

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran last week expressed serious concerns in parliament about amending the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance removing access to provincial High Courts.

He told parliament on Thursday (10): “There is a concern that the bail application has to now be made through the Court of Appeal instead of High Court. This is a very serious issue. It is not a question of making bail stringent. This is a question of access to Justice.

“I am saying that because the Court of Appeal sits only in Colombo, whereas now with the provincial High Courts you can go to your provincial capital. In lots of instances, the High Court sits in more than one city or town in a province, and you can make an application. Now this is very important, this is not a question of being lenient towards a possession of dangerous drugs, this is about anybody who is accused of this offence being able to go to court,” he said.

He said that the access to justice must not be denied and that there are incidents where people are framed or various distortions take place. Therefore suspects must be able to approach court and that must never be made difficult, he said.

“It is only after the 13th amendment to the constitution, that the first appeal even from a District Court matter can be made to the Court in the province. Before that even if the District Judge made a small mistake in the course of proceedings, you have to come to Colombo and make an application. So devolution – we talk about executive powers and legislative powers but with regard to the Judiciary a salutary feature came in, when people can access to a justice at least in the first appeal.

“So I appeal to the minister not to remove the jurisdictions to grant bail in this way to one central place in the whole country. Because that is denial of Justice to people and also it is against devolution,” Sumanthiran said.