Sri Lanka’s top court rules anti-terror bill needs national referendum unless amended

Colombo, Feb 20 (PTI) Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the proposed anti-terrorism bill would need a national referendum to be passed unless amendments recommended by it for some clauses are incorporated into it.
     The apex court’s determination on the constitutionality of the bill was read out in Parliament on Tuesday morning by Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapaksa.
     Rajapaksa, reading the apex court's order, said eight clauses in the bill had been “deemed inconsistent” with the Constitution. Therefore, it needs a two-thirds majority and in some cases needs to be approved by a referendum to become law, he said.
     If amended in line with the top court’s recommendations, the bill can be adopted with a simple majority in the 225-member Parliament, Rajapaksa added.
     Over 30 petitions had been filed against the controversial bill in the Supreme Court to verify its constitutionality. The bill, gazetted in March 2023, sought to replace the much-maligned Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) 1979.
     The PTA, which was widely used to crush the armed campaign to separate the north and eastern parts of the island for a separate Tamil state, had come under fire from international human rights groups for its draconian nature which gave security forces sweeping powers to detain people indefinitely.
     However, the new bill to replace the PTA has been dubbed even more draconian than the 1979 law.
     The Centre for Policy Alternatives, an independent advocacy think tank, said the new bill provides the executive, broad powers with limited checks and balances. It said it was dangerous to empower the deputy inspectors of general with powers to detain people.
     Sri Lanka, for a long time, had faced pressure to repeal the PTA and replace it with an act which complied with international norms.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)