Six SC petitions on Witness Bill

By Ke­lum Ban­dara and Yo­han Per­era
Six pe­ti­tions were filed in the Su­preme Court in con­nec­tion with the As­sis­tance to and Pro­tec­tion of Vic­tims of Crimes and Wit­ness­es Bill, Depu­ty Speak­er Chan­di­ma Weer­akk­o­dy who pre­si­ded over the par­lia­men­ta­ry pro­ceed­ings at the time con­veyed this information to the House.

He said the cop­ies of the pe­ti­tion had been sent to the Speak­er in con­form­i­ty with Con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­vi­sions.
The Gov­ern­ment pre­sen­ted this Bill in Par­lia­ment last week and if enac­ted, it will crim­i­nal­ize the in­tim­i­da­tion of vic­tims of crime and wit­ness­es. The Gov­ern­ment in­tro­duced the Bill amid in­tense pres­sure from sec­tions of the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mun­i­ty and some in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions. The Gov­ern­ment, on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions, even no­ti­fied the UNHRC of its in­ten­tion to in­tro­duce such a Bill.