Mar 14, Colombo: Four special petitions were filed in the Supreme Court yesterday (13) requesting that the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (Revised) Bill submitted for parliamentary approval be decided as unconstitutional.

Jehan Hameed, Lt. Col. Anil Amarasekara, Member of Parliament Udaya Gammanpila, and A. D. B. Abeysekara Gunaratne have filed the four petitions challenging the bill.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka Bill’ to provide administrative and financial independence to the Central Bank was presented to the Parliament on March 07 by the Leader of the House and Minister, Dr. Susil Premajayantha for its first reading.

The Attorney General is named as the respondent in the petitions.

The petitioners state that the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (Amendment) Bill has been submitted to amend the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act and it has been included in the agenda of the Parliament on the 7th of March.

The petitions have presented facts that the clauses of this bill are in violation of Articles 1, 2, 3, 4 of the Constitution.

The petitioners say that the Central Bank of Sri Lanka is an independent institution and neither the Finance Minister nor anyone else has the ability to intervene in them.

They further point out that the main financial institution of a country should be an independent institution, and the independence of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka will be damaged due to the clauses included in this amended bill and the country may face further financial crisis.

Also, the petitions have indicated that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be damaged due to this.

The petitioners have requested the Supreme Court to rule that the clauses included in this bill are unconstitutional and that it should be passed by the people in a referendum and a two-thirds majority vote in Parliament.