{"id":241740,"date":"2025-05-01T14:41:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T09:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=241740"},"modified":"2025-05-03T13:31:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T08:01:56","slug":"akd-appoints-rtd-appeal-court-justice-as-rti-commissioner-as-public-concern-increases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/akd-appoints-rtd-appeal-court-justice-as-rti-commissioner-as-public-concern-increases\/","title":{"rendered":"AKD Appoints Rtd. Appeal Court Justice As RTI Commissioner As Public Concern Increases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justice DN Samarakoon, Rtd Justice of the Court of Appeal has been appointed last week as the fourth Commissioner of Sri Lanka\u2019s Right to Information Commission<\/a><\/span> (RTI Commission) by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake<\/a><\/span>, the Colombo Telegraph<\/em> (CT) learns.<\/p>\n

Justice Samarakoon was nominated by the Sri Lanka Press Institute to fill the seat of the nominee of editors and media organisations on the five-member RTI Commission left vacant after Justice R. Walgama resigned on January 1st<\/sup><\/span> 2025. Delay by the Constitutional Council (CC) in forwarding the selected nominee to the President after calling for nominations on January 30th<\/sup><\/span> 2025 and further delay by the President in making the appointment led to public concern over the National Peoples Power (NPP) Government\u2019s commitment to transparency.\"\"<\/p>\n

Former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya who heads Sri Lanka\u2019s National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) issued a tough reminder to the Government, saying that while Sri Lanka\u2019s RTI has brought \u2018honour to the country,\u2019 leaving the Commission in limbo is unacceptable. This will “risk echoing the 2004\u20132005 period, when the then Government weakened democratic governance by delaying appointments to independent commissions. We sincerely hope that the current Government will not follow that path,” Jayasuriya said.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that this questions the NPP\u2019s rhetoric on fighting corruption, adding that it runs counter to the Minister of Media telling Sri Lankans seeking access to the recent India-Sri Lanka MOU on defence cooperation, to \u2018get it from RTI.\u2019 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the appointment of Justice Samarakoon, all seats filled through nominations on the Commission are complete with attorney-at-law Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena nominated from the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, attorney-at-law Jagath Liyanarachchi (civil society) and educationist cum retired public servant AM Nahiya. The President has the power to appoint one of the Commissioners as the Chair which he is yet to do.<\/p>\n

Sources at Parliament told Colombo Telegraph<\/em> that the remaining appointment of the fifth RTI Commissioner is pending. The CC which has called for applications from interested persons for the vacancy which arose in March 2025, is yet to commence even interviewing.<\/p>\n

While the quorum for the Commission to sit is three Commissioners, public concern is increasing over delay in the appointment of the Chair as well as the suitability of the remaining appointment. The Commission has also been stripped of an independent line item in the National Budget with its funding brought under the Media Ministry. This prevents the Commission from independently appointing its staff though this is a condition of the RTI Act.<\/p>\n

Globally hailed for its work in advancing transparency in Sri Lanka, with several decisions of the Commissions being upheld by the courts, the RTI Commission is however at the bottom of state funding for both Commissioners and staff<\/a><\/span>, its website revealed when queries were made from the Commission office. \"\"This seems to have been the case since the Commission was established<\/a><\/span> in 2017.\u00a0 \"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The Commission\u2019s Director General KDS Ruwanchandra confirmed to media that urgent requests had been made to the Ministry of Finance to approve a Head of Legal and three other legal officers on a basic government non-competitive salary scale in addition to the single legal officer that the Commission has been given.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additional recruitments have been asked for to handle the hearing of more than 50-60 appeals per week with approximately 75 fresh appeals being filed to the Commission per week by information requestors denied the release of information by Public Authorities. Other legal duties include appearing in the appellate courts and magistrates\u2019 court. That has now been outsourced to outside counsel resulting in heavy costs in legal fees. Requests for additional legal staff have not been approved so far.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, several information requestors and journalists have started angrily complaining on social media that key Ministries under the NPP Government are slow to respond to RTI requests with automatic denials of routine information. This has led to an overload of appeals at the Commission. Activists told CT that the Ministry of Media tasked with implementing the RTI Act, is “non-functional,” only engaging in trainings with support from non-governmental organisations.<\/p>\n

“That part of RTI implementation has completely collapsed. If the RTI Commission continues to be undermined, it will only be a matter of time before the entire RTI regime becomes limited to paper,” they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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