Chief Justice names bench to hear petitions on 22nd Amendment!

Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena herself has named the bench to hear petitions filed regarding the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.

Accordingly, the Chief Justice has named a five-member bench comprising Justice Achanla Vengappuli, Justice Arjuna Obeysekara, Justice Sampath Wijeratne and Justice Gihan Kulatunga to hear the petitions.

This bench has been nominated by the Chief Justice himself, as the Chief Justice is the biggest beneficiary of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, despite requests from all petitioners to appoint a bench without the Chief Justice or to have all the judges of the Supreme Court participate in the hearing of the petitions.

A special feature of this bench is that apart from the Chief Justice, the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, Yasantha Kodagoda and Dilip Nawaz, as well as Shiran Gunaratne, were not included in the bench.

The fact that Judge Yasantha Kodagoda has not been appointed to the bench in fundamental rights cases in recent times has also been a particularly noticeable feature. Meanwhile, the Chief Justice has appointed Gihan Kulatunga, the junior judge of the Supreme Court, as a member of this bench.

The hearing on these petitions is scheduled to commence on September 1.