Is Sri Lanka’s Parliament Supreme?
With the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice, some of the old debates have surfaced in new form. One of which is the question of supremacy of Parliament. This was a matter of contention in early 1970s during the debates over the 1972 constitution which somewhat died down with the advent of the executive presidential system; JR Jayewardene claiming that he could do anything other than making a ‘man a woman or a woman a man.’ This adage was traditionally attributed to the British Parliament, which was claimed to be supreme. JR kept undated letters of resignation from all MPs of his party to ‘prove or disprove’ that ‘Parliament is supreme.’
When the first press announcement was made about the impeachment motion, the government spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, claimed that the Chief Justice has violated the supremacy of Parliament (Combo Page, 1 November 2012). But it was not a charge in the impeachment motion. By that time many MPs in the ruling coalition had surrendered their signatures to a blank paper to be attached to the impeachment motion, reminding the undated resignation letters of JR Jayewardene’s time! What they verbally said however was that the judiciary should not object to whatever they want to do in Parliament whether constitutional or not apparently on the instructions of the President. During the Divineguma hearing before the Supreme Court, some argued that the Bill is not unconstitutional because the Parliament is supreme.
The reason for this argument is one phrase in Article 4 (c) of the Constitution which says the following:
“The judicial power of the People shall be exercised by Parliament through courts, tribunals and institutions created and established, or recognized, by the Constitution, or created and established by law, except in regard to matters relating to the privileges, immunities and powers of Parliament and of its Members, wherein the judicial power of the People may be exercised directly by Parliament according to law.”
The phrase “the judicial power of the people shall be exercised by Parliament through courts…” cannot however be taken in isolation without properly reading the conditional clause “created and established, or recognized, by the Constitution, or created and established by law…” The intermediation of Parliament between the people and the judiciary is conditioned by the Constitution and the Constitution is supreme. If there is any judicial power directly to the Parliament that is in respect of “matters relating to the privileges, immunities and powers of Parliament and of its Members.”
It is understandable that the parliamentarians wish to ‘feel and claim’ that they are part of a supreme body, but constitutionally speaking this is not the case in Sri Lanka. It is only good for their ego. Even people might be delighted to see if the parliamentarians could assert their dignity and pride against the Executive President, under whose powers the Parliament has simply become a rubber stamp or something worse. If they assert, then they may call it ‘supreme.’ But this is not the case at present. Instead they try to assert their illusory supremacy against the Supreme Court, which in fact they should respect and safeguard. This is the tragedy of the political situation in Sri Lanka today. They are barking up the wrong tree.
The Supreme Court is only doing a professional job independently by interpreting the constitutionality of the bills. They should not be dragged into politics by all parties, those who are for or against the impeachment.
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