Vice Chairman of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya Youth Wing, Rehan Jayawickrema, filed a Special Determination Petition in the Supreme Court today challenging the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Bill.
Through this petition, the petitioner is seeking a declaration that the bill requires the approval of the people at a referendum in addition to the 2/3 approval of the Parliament.
The Anti-Terrorism Bill was published in the Gazette on September 15, 2023, and placed on the Order Paper of Parliament on October 3, 2023.
The petitioner stated that the proposed bill in its entirety creates a separate or parallel legal regime to other penal statutes in respect of similar and identical conduct, and thereby the bill as a whole violates Article 12(1) of the Constitution.
The petitioner further alleged that the bill imposes severe restrictions on the fundamental rights of citizens on the basis of ‘national security’ and ‘emergency’ without a declaration of any such emergency and thereby violates Article 4 and Article 12(1) of the Constitution. The petitioner is of the view that the multiple provisions of the bill confer on the executive the judicial power of the people, contrary to Article 4 of the Constitution.
The petitioner maintained that clause 31 of the bill, by conferring on the Secretary of the Ministry of Defence the power to issue detention orders, was an alienation of the judicial power of the people to the Executive, contrary to Article 4 of the Constitution.
