It has been reported that President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Minister Tiran Alles has made a proposal to the Constitutional Council to extend the tenure of the current Attorney General Hon. Sanjaya Rajaratnam.
Further to this report, The Newsdesk SL contacted the Honourable Attorney General Sanjaya Rajaratnam today (28) inquiring if this was constitutionally accepted.
The conversation is as follows:
The Newsdesk SL (TND): It has been reported that the President and Minister Alles has made a request to the Constitutional Council seeking an extension of your tenure as the Attorney General. Is it constitutionally accepted?
Hon. Attorney General: That I don’t know. I don’t think you should be asking me this. I am not in a position to answer. I don’t know.
TND: So you are unaware that this request has been made?
Hon. AG: Sorry, I’m not in a position to answer this. Please speak to the Presidential Secretariat.
However legal sources confirm that “an extension to the office of the AG” is not covered under the provisions of the constitution of Sri Lanka.
Additionally, it is noteworthy that the Attorney General also being unaware of such a service extension, makes the President seeking an extension unconstitutional and creating further uncertainty into actions taken.
Several attempts to contact Minister Alles in this regard has proved futile as the Minister is currently abroad.
