Minister of Justice and Constitutional Reforms, President’s Counsel (PC) Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said yesterday (20) that it is his responsibility to present the decision taken by the Council of Legal Education (CLE) to make English language the mandatory medium of examination at the Sri Lanka Law College (SLLC), to the Parliament as the subject Minister but that now it is up to Parliament to take further actions regarding it.
When contacted by The Daily Morning, the Minister said that none of the members of the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Justice, Prisons Affairs and Constitutional Reforms were agreeable to the decision taken by the CLE when he consulted them on this matter. “The decision to hold the SLLC exams only in the English medium was not taken by the Minister of Justice, but by the CLE, and that decision is already published in the Gazette notification. It is my duty as the Justice Minister to coordinate this process between the CLE and the Parliament. But, at the end of the day, I am the one who is accountable to Parliament as the Minister. That is all. However, now, only the Parliament has the power to make the final decision,” he added.
He also said that he had sought to resolve this issue amicably and to get all the parties to a consensual understanding for more than five months, which was however not possible. He claimed that the CLE is not ready to change its decision or to temporarily put it on hold for a couple of years until the students are prepared to face the same.
In October of last year (2022), incumbent Foreign Affairs Minister, M.U.M. Ali Sabry PC presented this decision to Parliament as the then Minister of Justice amidst the opposition of the students of the SLLC and the Opposition parties in Parliament. Those parties emphasised that it is unfair to ask the students to sit for the exams in English at once without providing them a proper preparation on this matter.
The CLE which made the above decision, is presided over by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya PC, and it consists of the Attorney General, two other Supreme Court Judges, the Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, the Solicitor General, two members nominated by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and six members appointed by the Minister of Justice.