Main article:Under the which consisted of The Ceylon Independence Act, 1947 and The Ceylon (Constitution and Independence) Orders in Council 1947, was then known as. The Soulbury Constitution provided a parliamentary form of Government for Ceylon and for a Judicial Service Commission and a Public Service Commission. Were safeguarded by Article 29(2) of the Constitution. The (The Representative of ), the and the House of Representatives exercised legislative power.
Constitution, shall be published in the Gazette in the Sinhala and Tamil Language as. The Ceylon (Parliamentary Elections) Order in Council, 1946, or of such. The New Constitution that came into force in 1972 owed its validity entirely to the people of Sri Lanka. It was not derived from the previous Constitution Order in Council in 1946 which was an enactment passed by the British Queen in Council.
The House of Representatives consisted of 101 Members, of which 95 were elected by universal suffrage and 6 were nominated by the Governor-General. That total number was increased to 151 by the 1959 Delimitation Commission and the term of the House was 5 yearsThe Government set up a Joint of the Senate and the House of Representatives to consider a revision of the Constitution on 10 January 1958 but the Committee was unable to come to a final conclusion on account of the propagation of Parliament on 23 May 1959. A similar attempt by the Dudley Senanayake Government was failed due to such a propagation on 22 June 1968 too. Main article:came to office as the world's first Woman Prime Minister in May 1970. Her United Front Government used the parliament as a Constituent Assembly and drafted a new Republican Constitution.
It was promulgated on 22 May 1972. Provided for a unicameral legislature named the National State Assembly with a term of office of 6 years and Sovereignty was entirely vested in it. A nominal President with a term of office of 4 years was appointed as the Head of State by the Prime Minister, Head of the Cabinet of Ministers responsible to the National State assembly. Ceylon was replaced by republic of Sri Lanka (Resplendent Island). This constitution contained a declaration of fundamental rights and freedom was amended on 11 February 1 975 to change the basis of delimitation of constituencies from 75,000 persons per electorate to 90,000 persons. Who came to office in July 1977 with a five-sixths majority passed the second amendment to the 1972 Constitution on 4 October 1977 and then Prime Minister Jayawardene became the first Executive President of Sri Lanka on 4 February 1978.
Background to the 1978 Constitution Before the 1977 general election the UNP had sought a mandate from the people to adopt a new constitution. Accordingly, a was appointed to consider the revision of the existing Constitution.The new Constitution, promulgated on 7 September 1978, provided for a parliament and an Executive President. The term of office of the president and the duration of parliament were both set at six years. The new Constitution also introduced a form of multi-member for elections to parliament, which was to consist of 196 members (subsequently increased to 225 by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution).The Constitution provided for an independent judiciary and guaranteed, providing for any aggrieved person to invoke the for any violation of his or her fundamental rights. The Constitution also provided for a Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman) who could investigate public grievances against government institutions and state officers and give redress. It also introduced anti-defection laws, and referendums on certain bills and on issues of national importance.Provisions for amendment Most provisions of the Constitution of Sri Lanka can be amended by a two-thirds majority in parliament.
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Ceylonese colonial constitutional reformThe Commission (: සෝල්බරි කොමිෂන් සභාව Solbari Komishan Sabhawa), announced in 1944 was, like its predecessor, the, a prime instrument of constitutional reform in. The immediate basis for the appointment of a commission for constitutional reforms was the 1944 draft constitution of the Board of Ministers, headed.
This commission ushered in status and Independence to Sri Lanka in 1948. Its constitutional recommendations were largely those of the 1944 Board of Ministers' draft, a document reflecting the influence of Senanayake and his main advisor, Sir. Contents.Background to the appointment of the commission The struggle for Independence in had been fought on 'constitutionalist' lines rather than on the strongly confrontational approach that had developed in British India. Only the Marxists, a tiny minority, had attempted to create confrontational conditions which they believed to be a harbinger of the impending against Imperialism. Senanayake was the leader of the 'constitutionalist' wing of the Sri Lankan independence movement. He began to develop a 'Ceylonese' vision for Sri Lanka, i.e., co-operation of all the ethnic and religious groups.
To this end he masterminded the appointment of, a respected Tamil politician as the minister of Home affaires(, p560). Senanayake began to formulate a draft constitution following the conditions laid down by the Colonial Secretary of State in 1943.
There were three aspects to the effort. The first was the abandonment of the and the formulation of a.
The second was that the Governor's reserve powers and other controls of the Imperial government would be abandoned and there would be full responsibility in internal civil matters. However, the crown's reserve powers would be retained especially in regard to limitations set upon the legislature regarding religious and ethnic minorities. The Crown would also retain defence and external affairs. The third was the ratification of the new constitution by a 3/4 majority in the State Council of Ceylon.The Draft Constitution of the Board of Ministers Senanayake and his advisors worked with remarkable speed by 1944, and a draft was made ready for submission to. Many groups who opposed the move towards independence, notably British business groups, certain church dignitaries criticized the rapid moves in what they termed 'lack of consultation'. The 1943 Colonial Secretary's discussions envisaged that the draft constitution would be examined by a 'suitable commission or conference', after the victory over the Axis powers. However, Senanayake pressed for an immediate consideration of their proposals.
There was great reluctance and no sense of urgency on the part of the Colonial office. However, Senanayake, and others had developed impressive contacts with Lord who, as Supreme Allied Commander of South-East Asia had worked from. A telegram from Lord Mountbatten is believed have been crucial in over-riding the foot-dragging of the Colonial office and conceding to Senanayake's demands. The appointment of a commission was made on July 5, 1944.Reaction to the Commission Although the appointment of a commission without waiting for the end of the War was a great concession, the announcement of the Commission headed by was greeted with dismay by Senanayake and others.
Their disappointment was due to the widening of the scope of the commission beyond what was set out by the Colonial Secretary in 1943, to also consult with 'various interests, including the minority communities concerned with the subject of constitutional reforms in Ceylon'. Senanayake was a man who preferred behind-the-curtain negotiations instead of confrontational public hearings.
He felt that such consultations would simply become very divisive. In fact, the politics of the 1930s had become very communal or racist, with the first Sinhala-Tamil riot occurring in 1939, after an inflammatory speech by, a leading Tamil politician. Senanayake and the Board of Ministers resorted to an official boycott of the commission as an expression of their disapproval of the widening of the scope of the commission. However, this merely meant that they did not appear before the commission in public or 'official' sittings. Senanayake and his associates held private meetings where the commissioners were the guests of honour. In fact, became an 'unofficial secretary' to the commission and significantly influenced it.
This enabled Senanayake and his advisors to present their views without getting into confrontational politics with the, led by G. Ponnambalam who was allowed to dominate many of the official hearings.G.
Ponnambalam's submissions Tamil politics during the time of the Donoughmore Commission was dominated by, with as its chief exponent. Tamils, only about 15% of the population, had a strong, dominant position in the early legislatures of the country. The introduction of in 1931 completely changed the character of politics, where Tamil politicians found it very difficult to accept that they would become a minority. The eminent historian, Prof. M.de Silva attributes this to the collapse of the.
According to Dr. Jane Russell, Tamils also found it very irksome that the Sinhalese possessed a written history known as the extending back to some 25 centuries , whereas the Tamils were seen as later migrants or invading settlers. This, as well as other factors led to a development of Tamil nationalism and communal feeling, displacing casteism to a secondary place in the nation's politics. Communal politics, which involved attacks on the, suspicious examination of appointments to public office, opening of colonisation schemes etc., for communal bias became common place. Ponnambalam wrested control of Tamil politics from the Arunachalam-family elitist Colombo Tamil group and followed a stridently communal political program.
This was matched by similar nationalist politics, led by, the Sinhalese counterpart of Ponnambalam.Balance representation scheme The Tamil Congress, led by Ponnambalam, had evolved the policy of 50-50, i.e., allocation of an equal number of seats in the legislature to the Tamils and the Sinhalese, over-riding the natural Universal Franchise representation where the 15% Tamils, 75% Sinhalese , would lead to only about 15 seats in a chamber with 100 representatives,( p308). Ponnambalam, an English-educated Catholic lawyer who was elitist and abrasive by temperament justified this by pointing out that there were roughly equal numbers of English educated (i.e., upper caste) Sinhalese and Tamils, and that this would also guarantee a place of political parity for the Tamils. Thus Ponnambalam proposed that the legislature should be: 'based on the balanced scheme of representation that would avoid the danger of concentration of power in one community, but would ensure its equitable distribution among all communities and the people as a whole'(, p. 92).
Ponnambalam also proposed further constitutional mechanisms to 'safeguard minority rights'.Ponnambalam's very artificial and unusual schemes for securing the continued parity of status of Tamils, completely contrary to the 'one man-one vote' concept thoroughly accepted in European liberalism, met with severe disapprobation by the commissioners. They stated that 'any attempt by artificial means to convert a majority into a minority is not only inequitable, but doomed to failure'. Ponnambalam's proposals were considered to be a means of conferring a minority supremacy amounting to virtual majority rule, and 'denial of the democratic principle'( p. 311). The Hindu organ, an influential newspaper of the time, condemned it as something that 'can only be maintained against the united opposition of the Sinhalese by British bayonets'.Claims of Discrimination The submissions in front of the Soulbury commission also included specific grievances of the Ceylon Tamils regarding claimed unfair discrimination against their community. De Silva, History of Sri Lanka, Penguin 1995. Mountbatten's Telegram No: SAC 2626, 22 May 1944, marked 'Top Secret' to the war cabinet. ^ Dr.
Russell, Communal Politics under the Donoughmore Constitution, 1931-1947, Tissara Publishers, Colombo 1982. ^ Soulbury Report, London, 1945. Ivor Jennings, The Constitution of Ceylon, Oxford University Press, 1949.
Hansard, State Council of Ceylon 1945. Hansard 1935.
Archived from on May 31, 2001. Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl=. See Senator Natesan's speech, Hansard 1948. (1470s).
(1505– 1594). (1521). (1527–1658).
(1560–1619). (1597).
(1795). (1796–1818). (1813). (1815). (1817–1948).
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(1848). (1895). (1915). (1919).
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(1937). (1942). (1944). (1948).
(1948). (1950s–2000s). (1953).
(1954). (1956). (1956). (1957). (1958).
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