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BASL commends RTI Commission for service, asks the President to secure institutional autonomy
View(s):By Ranjith Padmasiri
Noting with appreciation the ‘commendable service’ rendered by Sri Lanka’s Right to Information Commission (RTI Commission) since its establishment despite limited resources, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake calling on the President to take ‘immediate steps’ to secure and safeguard the autonomy and capacity of the RTI Commission to discharge its mandate.
The BASL has expressed deep concern over challenges of serious understaffing and inadequate financial independence faced by the body. The independent functioning of the RTI Commission is ‘of paramount importance’ given the vital role it plays in ‘safeguarding the constitutional right of citizens to access information under Article 14A of the Constitution,’ it has reminded, warning that grave institutional deficiencies have directly undermined these efforts.
The BASL has asserted its right to make the intervention as a principal stakeholder in the nomination process of members to the RTI Commission as it is statutorily required to nominate an attorney-at-law of eminence or a legal academic as member to the Constitutional Council, which recommendation is thereafter forwarded to the President for appointment.
The letter has been sent to the President in the wake of a Public Statement issued by the RTI Commission on 20th November 2025 ahead of the ten year anniversary of the enactment of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The RTI Commission had emphasized that ‘chronic understaffing’, particularly the acute lack of competent legal staff, has had a negative impact on its quasi-judicial appeal function.
Sections 13 (3) and 16 of the RTI Act stipulates the independent recruitment of staff by the RTI Commission and a dedicated Fund. A separate line item was allocated to the RTI Commission in the National Budget in 2017 when the Commission was established but this was taken away thereafter. Its budgetary allocations were then placed under the line item of the Ministry of Media, compromising its financial independence and ability to recruit staff, the RTI Commission pointed out.
Further the BASL has stated its strong opposition to amendment of the RTI Act in a manner that would curtail the citizens’ right to information guaranteed under Article 14A of the Constitution.
‘We emphasize that any proposed amendment to the Act or to the functioning of the Commission must be preceded by due consultations including with the BASL, as a principal stakeholder, and with the general public’ the letter says, citing the public interest in upholding the ‘constitutional rights of the people.’
Earlier, the RTI Commission had also cautioned against amendments that may ‘dilute the information right’ widely used by citizens and praised internationally as a ‘best practice’ example in South Asia. Correcting a response given by the Ministry of Mass Media to a parliamentary question asked by an opposition parliamentarian on 23rd October 2025, the RTI Commission clarified that it was revising its Rules on Fees for the release of information and that the revisions, under Section 42 of the RTI Act, does not require amendment of the RTI Act, needing only to be published in the Gazette.
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