News
Retired Appeal Court Judge appointed as an RTI Commissioner
View(s):Rtd Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice D.N. Samarakoon has been appointed as an Right to Information Commissioner by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to fill a vacancy on Sri Lanka’s Right to Information Commission (RTIC) pending for more than four months.
Justice Samarakoon was nominated by the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI).
His appointment makes up four Commissioners of the five-member body along with RTI Commissioners, attorneys Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, Jagath Liyana Arachchi and AM Nahiya. This came after months of delay after the Constitutional Council (CC) called for nominations from ‘organisations of publishers, editors and media persons’ on 30th January 2025 with the resignation of retired Court of Appeal judge Rohini Walgama earlier that month.
The CC had forwarded the recommended nominee to fill that vacancy to the Presidential Secretariat in March 2025. Meanwhile, former Supreme Court judge Justice Upaly Abeyratne, Chairman of the RTIC, also resigned that same month. President Dissanayake is yet to exercise his powers to appoint the RTIC’s Chair under Section 12 (5) of the RTI Act with the appointment of the fifth RTI Commissioner still pending.
The inactivity of the Government in filling the two vacancies in the RTIC led to public fears regarding its func
tioning though the Commission continued to hear appeals under the RTI Act with the quorum being three. Serious personnel limitations and lack of support for the RTIC was raised in the Parliament during the Budget debates by former Media Minister Gayantha Karunatilleke who warned that the much praised RTI Act was being ‘diluted.’
Former Speaker and head of the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) Karu Jayasuriya recently called upon the Government to make the appointment of the RTIC’s Chair without further delay. The Government’s failure to provide a separate line of funding for the RTIC in the National Budget for the past several years despite the RTI Act requiring independent financial allocations, has been raised as a major concern by RTIC Director General, Mr KDS Ruwanchandra.
Justice Samarakoon’s appointment by the President on 23rd April 2025 is with ‘immediate effect’ for the unexpired term of the vacancy (ending on 9th December 2026). The RTIC consists of five persons appointed by the President upon the recommendation of the CC, three of whom are respectively nominated by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the media and civil society with the remaining two persons separately recommended by the CC. Each term is for a period of five years with the current Commission sitting in its second term (December 2021-December 2026).
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