The Cabinet of Ministers is to decide tomorrow (27) on gazetting the proposed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, after looking at the final draft of the legislation that has received the approval of the Attorney General (AG), The Sunday Morning learns.
Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told The Sunday Morning that the Government’s proposed 22nd Amendment had been approved by the Attorney General after the Legal Draftsman had passed it on to the Attorney General’s Department.
“The finalised draft will be presented to Cabinet on Monday and a decision will be made then on when to gazette the proposed Amendment,” he said, adding that the draft Amendment would be gazetted next week itself.
At the last Cabinet meeting, the Justice Minister presented a Cabinet note informing that the Government’s draft 21st Amendment would be identified in future as the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, since the draft Amendment presented by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) had already been gazetted as the 21st Amendment.
At the same meeting, Minister Prasanna Ranatunga had questioned whether the proposals presented by other MPs, especially ruling party MPs, to the proposed Amendment had been included in the draft that was presented to the Cabinet for approval.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had noted that the relevant provisos (the President’s proposals) had been included, and that therefore there were no more issues in that regard.
After receiving the assurances from the Prime Minister and Justice Minister, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the draft Amendment with agreement that the legislation would be gazetted after the Cabinet saw the draft finalised by the Attorney General.