Sri Lanka is a South Asian island country located on the shores of the Indian Ocean. The population of this country is approx 2,17,63,000 with 65,610 square kilometers area. Ethnically, 75% are Sinhalese, 11% are Sri Lankan Tamil, 9% are Sri Lankan Moor, 4% are Indian Tamil, and 1% are others. The official languages are Sinhala and Tamil. Religiously, 70% are Buddhist, 13% are Hindu, 10% are Muslim, and 7% are Christian.
The constitution is unnecessarily long. It would be good if it had a collection of necessary issues, but it is not. The good thing is that at the time of the election, the Election Commission can take control of the police and the military, and can provide election security responsibility.
And the bad part is, in some cases the accused has to prove himself that the accusation is not true. It is the accepted rule all over the world that the one who files the complaint has to bear the burden of proof, but in Sri Lanka the opposite is the rule. If you are accused of murder, how will you prove yourself innocent? Because you were sleeping at home at the time of the murder. You certainly did not install a security camera in your bedroom. If the police accuse you of murder, then it is the police's responsibility to present irrefutable evidence in court to support the charges against you.
Admirable Articles of Sri Lanka's Constitution
12. Right to equality
1. All persons are equal before the law and are entitled to the equal protection of the law.
2. No citizen shall be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion, place of birth or any one of such grounds:
Provided that it shall be lawful to require a person to acquire within a reasonable time sufficient knowledge of any language as a qualification for any employment or office in the Public, Judicial or Local Government Service or in the service of any Public Corporation, where such knowledge is reasonably necessary for the discharge of the duties of such employment or office:
Provided further that it shall be lawful to require a person to have a sufficient knowledge of any language as a qualification for any such employment or office where no function of that employment or office can be discharged otherwise than with a knowledge of that language.
3. No person shall, on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex or any one of such grounds, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to access to shops, public restaurants, hotels, places of public entertainment and places of public worship of his own religion.
4. Nothing in this Article shall prevent special provision being made, by law, subordinate legislation or executive action, for the advancement of women, children or disabled persons.
20. Use of National Languages in Parliament, Provincial Councils and Local Authorities
A Member of Parliament or a member of a Provincial Council or a Local Authority shall be entitled to perform his duties and discharge his functions in Parliament or in such Provincial Council or Local Authority in either of the National Languages.
104C. Deployment of Police by the Commission
● Upon the making of an Order for the holding of an election or the making of a Proclamation requiring the conduct of a Referendum, as the case may be, the Commission shall notify the Inspector-General of Police of the facilities and the number of police officers required by the Commission for the holding or conduct of such election or Referendum, as the case may be.
● The Inspector-General of Police shall make available to the Commission the facilities and police officers specified in any notification made under paragraph (1) of this Article.
● The Commission may deploy the police officers and facilities made available to the Commission in such manner as is calculated to promote the conduct of a free and fair election or referendum, as the case may be.
● Every police officer made available to the Commission under paragraph (2) of this Article, shall be responsible to and act under the direction and control of the Commission during the period of an election.
● No suit, prosecution or other proceeding, shall lie against any police officer made available to the Commission under this Article for any lawful act or thing in good faith done by such police officer, in pursuance of a direction of the Commission or his functioning under the Commission.
104D. Deployment of Armed Forces
It shall be lawful for the Commission, upon the making of an Order for the holding of an election or the making of a Proclamation requiring the conduct of a Referendum, as the case may be, to make recommendations to the President regarding the deployment of the armed forces of the Republic for the prevention or control of any actions or incidents which may be prejudicial to the holding or conducting of a free and fair election or Referendum, as the case may be.
Facts of Sri Lanka's Constitution
Preamble
The PEOPLE OF SRI LANKA having, by their Mandate freely expressed and granted on the Sixth day of the waxing moon in the month of Adhi Nikini in the year Two Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty one of the Buddhist Era (being Thursday the Twenty first day of the month of July in the year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy seven), entrusted to and empowered their Representatives elected on that day to draft, adopt and operate a new Republican Constitution in order to achieve the goals of a DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC, and having solemnly resolved by the grant of such Mandate and the confidence reposed in their said Representatives who were elected by an overwhelming majority, to constitute SRI LANKA into a DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC whilst ratifying the immutable republican principles of REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY and assuring to all peoples FREEDOM, EQUALITY, JUSTICE, FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS and the INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY as the intangible heritage that guarantees the dignity and well-being of succeeding generations of the People of SRI LANKA and of all the people of the World, who come to share with those generations the effort of working for the creation and preservation of a JUSTAND FREE SOCIETY:
WE, THE FREELY ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE OF SRI LANKA, in pursuance of such Mandate, humbly acknowledging our obligations to our People and gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain and preserve their rights and privileges so that the Dignity and Freedom of the Individual may be assured, Just, Social, Economic and Cultural Order attained, the Unity of the Country restored, and Concord established with other Nations,
do hereby adopt and enact
this
CONSTITUTION
as the
SUPREME LAW
of the
DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA.
CHAPTER II. BUDDHISM
● The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1)(e).
13. Freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention and punishment, and prohibition of retrospective penal legislation (Part of it)
● Every person shall be presumed innocent until he is proved guilty:
Provided that the burden of proving particular facts may, by law, be placed on an accused person.
16. Existing written law and unwritten law to continue in force
1. All existing written law and unwritten law shall be valid and operative notwithstanding any inconsistency with the preceding provisions of this Chapter.
2. The subjection of any person on the order of a competent court to any form of punishment recognized by any existing written law shall not be a contravention of the provisions of this Chapter.
70. Sessions of Parliament (Part of it)
● Parliament shall be summoned to meet once at least in every year.
