Secretary General of the Parliament Dhammika Dasanayake says that the House has decided to call for nominations for the current and future vacancies in the Right to Information Commission of Sri Lanka.
Accordingly, the House has decided to call for nominations from the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Publishers’ Associations, Editors and Journalists and other civil society organizations, he said.
The decision was taken at a recent online sitting of Parliament chaired by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.
Hon. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa, Minister of Fisheries Douglas Devananda and Opposition MP Kabir Hashim were also present at the meeting.
The Parliament has also decided to publish newspaper advertisements on weekends and weekdays in three languages and to give two weeks to submit nominations.
The current term of the Right to Information Commission (RTI) expires last September. The RTI Commission is established in terms of Section 11 of the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016 and is subject to a term of five years. The appointment of the Information Commission, consisting of a Chairman and four members, shall be made on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council prior to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution.
However, the methodology of this appointment was slightly changed through the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. Due to the abolition of the Constitutional Council and the establishment of the Parliament instead. The role of the House of Commons in relation to these appointments is to provide the President with observations on nominations received from civil society organizations, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and media organizations that are capable of submitting nominations as prescribed by law.
It is incumbent upon the President to seek the observations of Parliament in making such appointments. Former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had recently stated that the commission should not appoint people only with the consent of the government.