Colombo, Sri Lanka’s controversial Prevention of Organised Crimes Bill has faced 20 petitions in the Supreme Court challenging its constitutionality, Deputy Speaker Rizvi Salih told Parliament on Tuesday.
After hearing the petitions, the Supreme Court will convey its decision to the Speaker, as provided in the Constitution. Salih said the Speaker had received copies of the petitions filed under Article 121 of the Constitution, which allows citizens to challenge a bill’s constitutionality in the Supreme Court within one week of it being placed in Parliament.
The rights organisation said the bill contained provisions allowing confessions extracted under duress to be admitted in court, detention of suspects for up to two years without trial and restrictions on media reporting of court proceedings. It also said the proposed law gave police wide powers to conduct searches without warrants and allowed imprisonment for failing to provide information to authorities.
