• IGP Wickramaratne to retire on Thursday

Although Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana D. Wickramaratne is to retire on 23 March, Speaker of the Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, who is also the Chairman of the Constitutional Council (CC), is yet to receive nominations of senior Police officers to be recommended for appointment as the IGP, The Daily Morning learned.

Wickramaratne, who was appointed as the Acting IGP following the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019, and confirmed in the position in November 2020, is to, according to the Police, retire on 23 March.

Article 41(c) of the Constitution reads: “No person shall be appointed by the President to any of the Offices specified in the Schedule to that Article (which includes the IGP), unless such appointment has been approved by the CC, upon a recommendation made to the Council by the President.”

Accordingly, The Daily Morning queried Abeywardana as to whether he had received nominations for the post of the IGP from the President, to which he said: “No. I have not received nominations yet.”

Meanwhile, as it was earlier reported that Wickramaratne would retire with effect from yesterday (20), The Daily Morning queried Police Media Spokesman, Senior Superintendent of Police and Attorney-at-Law Nihal Thalduwa about the situation. He said that Wickramaratne is to retire not with effect from yesterday, but 23 March.

The Daily Morning also queried the National Police Commission’s (NPC) Chairman and former IGP, Chandra Fernando as to whether the NPC would make an intervention in the relevant process to which replied: “We do not have any involvement in it.”

With Wickramaratne’s scheduled retirement, several names have been suggested for the post of the IGP. Among them are Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) – Administration Nilantha Jayawardena, SDIG – Western Province Deshabandu Tennakoon, SDIG – Southern Province and Attorney Ajith Rohana, SDIG – North Western Province Lalith Pathinayake, and SDIG – Central Province Priyantha Weerasooriya.

Meanwhile, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, in a recent letter addressed to President Ranil Wickremesinghe, had stated that the next IGP should be an officer whose service is exemplary and free of any blemish. “The Police Chief should be able to restore public confidence in the Police, which saw a ‘serious erosion’ over the last few decades,” the letter read.

On 26 April 2019, then-President and incumbent Opposition Parliamentarian Maithripala Sirisena ordered then-IGP Pujith Jayasundara to resign over the Easter Sunday terror attacks of April 2019. Jayasundara refused to resign and was sent on compulsory leave, after which Wickramaratne was appointed as the Acting IGP. He was confirmed as the IGP on 25 November 2020.