Can the PM be removed? : Preparations to seek SC opinion!

Civil society groups are set to move the courts to seek the supreme court's opinion as to if the PM can be removed or not. Currently, there appear to be two schools of thought on the matter.

After results of the recent LG polls the President is said to be of the stance that following serious setbacks faced PM Ranil Wickramasinghe should step down from his post despite obtaining over 30 percent of the vote when the President’s political party gained less than 15 percent of the vote.

However, the PM has refused to step down claiming that he will continue in his position according to the constitution.

Under these circumstances, contradictory legal opinions as to if the President can remove the PM are being circulated now.

 ‘President has no power’ - Lal Wijenayake

According to Senior legal expert Lal Wijenayake after the 19th amendment to the constitution, the President can only appoint the PM but has no powers to remove him.

But on the contrary Senior lawyer, Kalyananda Thiranagama says the President, in fact, has the power to remove the PM if he so wishes.

Section 46 (1) of the 19th Amendment

Section 46 (2) of the 19th Amendment

According to Lal WIjenayake, the Section 46 (2) of the 19th Amendment has removed the President’s power to remove the PM adding that after the PM’s appointment his future lies with the Parliament. 1

"He can be the Prime Minister as long as he can gain the trust of Parliament, and only a resolution can be adopted to change the Prime Minister through a no-confidence motion".

 Confidence of the parliament

However, Kalyananda Thiranagama argues that the situation mentioned in Section 42 (4) of the 19th Amendment "The MP who has the maximum confidence in Parliament should be made the Prime Minister” in reference to PM Wickramasinghe is now past after the recent LG polls.

 According to Thiranagama the President is able to argue that majority of the people have rejected the PM with those close to him itself calling for his resignations. “This can create a doubt if the PM now has the majority confidence of the house” he said.

Thiranagama says this is possible as the PM spoke of national policies on the election trail as opposed to local government policies.

Section 48 (1) of the 19th Amendment

 But Attorney Lal Wijenayake refutes this claim. He says there is not ‘political reason’ to change to government due to a result of an LG poll.

He says in a recent election in India the party led by PM Narendra Modi won with the slightest margin but this does not mean the government must be changed.

The current cabinet is illegal. The President can therefore consider the cabinet as being dissolved.

Senior Lawyer Kalyananda Thiranagama