The Supreme Court will communicate its decision regarding the Constitutional changes to the President and Speaker today (September 1).

The Bench comprising Justice Dr. Shirani A. Bandaranayake (President), Justice K. Sripavan, Justice P. A. Ratnayake PC, Justice S. I. Imam and Justice Suresh Chandra directed Attorney General President’s Counsel Mohan Pieris and the other Counsel who appeared for several other parties to submit their written submissions before 10 a.m. today.

The main Constitutional changes are the removal of the two term restriction on the Presidency, reorganization of the Independent Commissions under the 17th Amendment and enabling the President to sit in Parliament, once in three months.

Senior Attorneys Jayampathi Wickremaratne and Saliya Peiris appeared for several other parties.

According to the amendments envisaged the Constitutional Council (CC) introduced under the 17th Amendment to the Constitution is to be replaced by a five member Parliamentary Council (PC).

This was revealed at a media briefing at the Mahaweli Centre yesterday (31 Aug) attended by senior SLFP Ministers Maithripala Sirisena, Susil Premajayantha and Nimal Siripala de Silva.

The five members include the Speaker, the Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader, a nominee MP of the Premier and a nominee MP of the Opposition Leader. The PC will continue to function even in the event of dissolution of Parliament and would be in force until the new Parliament sits. The PC will comprise members representing all major ethnic groups.

All nominations the PC makes are to be forwarded to the President within one week for observations and in the case of a failure to do so, the President has powers to make appointments. Special provisions have been made to de-list members if necessary. Powers in this regard have been vested with the Parliament and the President.

According to the Ministers, the proposed amendments envisaged include deletion of clause 2 of Article 31 which relates to restricting the number of terms of holding the office of the Presidency by an individual. Minister Premajayanth said the President would sit in Parliament every three months sans voting powers but would be open for questions from all MPs.

He said the envisaged changes were not structural amendments and therefore a two-thirds majority in Parliament was enough for the amendments to become law. The Ministers added that the amendments had not been prepared hastily but the provisions had been discussed with Opposition parties and other stakeholders over a long period.