Oct 25, Colombo: The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka is to send its decision on the Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provision) Bill to the Speaker of parliament and the President.

The Court had yesterday taken up for hearing petitions challenging the Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provision) Bill.

The petitioners have challenged that the extension of detention period of persons who are arrested without a warrant from 24 to 48 hours after arrest on the ground, would violate the presumption of innocence as set out in the Article 13 (2) of the Constitution.

The petitioners have noted that there would be an abuse of power by the police since the Bill granted more powers to Police.

The petitioners have sought the Supreme Court to pronounce the Bill was inconsistent with the Constitution and should therefore be passed with a two thirds majority of the parliament and approved by people at a referendum.

However, the Attorney General had informed court that the extension of the detention period would be carried with the supervision of the magistrate and the magistrate has the discretion to refuse such requests by the Police.