Yesterday, President Ranil stated that the government will not consider orders or instructions from any party other than the Parliament regarding the restructuring of local debt.
In Sri Lanka, the power to control public finances rests with the Parliament. As of now, the government has taken a decision regarding the domestic debt restructuring.
As the Parliament has the financial control, it is the Parliament that should take decisions regarding debt restructuring. However, the opposition has now planned to use the courts to disrupt the debt restructuring as well Second phase of IMF loan.
The opposition tried to hijack the financial control powers of the Parliament by using the courts before. When the government decided that there was no money to hold the local government elections, the opposition tried to allocate the money through a court order. Said situation turned into a conflict between Parliament and the judiciary.
In that juncture, a group of ministers complained to the Speaker that the Supreme Court’s intervention in financial control and same is undermining the power of Parliament. Accordingly the Speaker decided to investigate the matter. Facts being so Supreme Court judges were scheduled to question by summoning to the Parliament
However, in the end, the court refrained from giving a decision regarding the allocation of money for the election. As such A major conflict between the Parliament and the judiciary was avoided.
There is an important thing that the citizens of this country should understand. Economic crises cannot be solved by court orders. If someone tries to find solutions to economic crises through court orders, it will only aggravate the crises
