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When Sri Lanka had an Upper House

old_parliamentConstitutional changes seem to be on the priority list of the Government. ‘Constitutional changes soon’ read the headline of the ‘Sunday Times’. The news story mentioned that the creation of a second chamber is among the among the proposed changes.

Over the years, the existence of an upper house and a lower house has been a feature in many countries. The best example, of course, is the House of Lords in UK, membership of which originally was the right of birth to hereditary peers. It has been a distinct element of the British Parliament from the 13th century onwards. Membership has changed considerably over centuries and today the House of Lords comprises the Lords Spiritual, hereditary peers, all life peers and peeresses and the Law Lords consisting of the judges of the Supreme Court. There are 733 members – 87 more than the 646-members of the House of Commons.

Closer home, India has the Rajya Sabha – the upper house of the Indian Parliament with Lok Sabha serving as the lower house. Membership is limited to 250 members (Lok Sabha has up to 552 members), 12 of whom are nominated by the President of India for their expertise in the fields of art, literature, science and social service. The others are elected by the state legislatures. They serve for a period of six years with one third of the members retiring every two years. The Vice President of India is ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

A second chamber is not strange to Sri Lanka. The Soulbury Commission (1945) on constitutional reform headed by Viscount Soulbury recommended a Westminster style of government with a bicameral legislature – the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate consisted of 30 members. Fifteen of them were elected by the House of Representatives and were known as ‘elected Senators’. The balance fifteen were appointed by the Governor-General. The Senators served a period of six years with one third retiring every second year. A retiring Senator was eligible for re-election or re-appointment.

The election of Senators by the House of Representatives was based on the principle of proportional representation reflecting the strength of the political parties in the Lower House.

As for the appointed Senators, the Constitution stated that “the Governor-General shall endeavour to appoint persons who he is satisfied have rendered distinguished public service or are persons of eminence in professional, commercial, industrial or agricultural life, including education, law, medicine, science, engineering and banking.”

At the first meeting of the Senate, the members elected two Senators to serve as the President (equivalent to Speaker in the House of Representatives) to preside over the session and a Deputy President. They continued to hold office until they ceased to be Senators unless they resigned office earlier.

The first taste of the parliamentary system in Sri Lanka was in 1947 (August-September) when the people elected their representatives at the third general election since universal adult suffrage was introduced. The first was in 1931 and the second in 1936. These elections were to elect members to the State Council set up under the Donoughmore Constitution. The elections were long overdue with members of the second State Council (1936) continuing for eleven years although the life of the Council was to be five years. World War II  was the excuse given for the delay.

Following the general election, the UNP having obtained the most number of seats (42 in a 95-member House) formed the government. Of the 15 elected Senators, nine were government nominees. They were: R F S de Mel, Cyril de Zoysa, Justin Kotelawela, Adeline Molamure, Dr N G Perera, Barnes Ratwatte Dissawe, A R A Razik, W A B Soysa and C (Sarath) Wijesinghe). The others were L B Jayasena (Communist), W K Jinadasa (LSSP), S Nadesan (Independent – Left wing), Dr E M V Naganathan (Tamil Congress), D W J Perera (Bolshevick Leninist) and Peri Sunderam (Ceylon Indian Congress).

The appointed Senators were: C Coomaraswamy, Ms Cisse Cooray, Charles A M de Silva, C A Gardiner, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, Dr Frank Gunasekera, Mohamed Macan Markar, Dr L A Rajapakse, Mudaliyar A B Rajendra, H E Jansz, Sir John Tarbat, J A D Victoria, Sir Gerard Wijekoon, E A P Wijeratne & Col T Y Wright.

The posts of President and Deputy President were contested. Sir Gerard Wijekoon’s name was proposed by Col T Y Wright for the post of President and was seconded by W A B Soysa. E A P Wijeratne proposed C Coomaraswamy’s name and was seconded by A R A Razik. Sir Gerard got 14 votes while Coomaraswamy got 13. Winning by one vote, Sir Gerard became President. Peri Suderam, proposed by S Nadesan and seconded by E A P Wijeratne won against C A Gardiner proposed by Charles de Silva and seconded by Cyril de Zoysa. The voting was identical to that of the President 14-13. (The contests were not held on a party basis such).

There was provision in the Constitution for the appointment of Senators as Ministers. According to Section 48, “not less than two Ministers, one of whom shall be the Minister of Justice shall be members of the Senate.” There was also provision for two Parliamentary Secretaries (as Deputy Ministers were then identified) to be appointed from among the members of the Senate.

In the first Cabinet formed by D S Senanayake among the 14 ministers were two Senators – Sir Oliver Goonetilleka (Home Affairs & Rural Development) and Dr L A (later Sir Lalitha) Rajapakse (Justice).

Later Presidents of the Senate were Sir Nicholas Attygalle, Sir Cyril de Zoysa, Sarath Wijesinghe and Thomas Amarasuriya.

All Bills passed by the House of Representatives were sent to the Senate where they were debated and passed before submitting to the Governor-General for his signature. However, there were restrictions imposed. While the maximum time limit for a Bill to be delayed by the Senate was six months, Money Bills could be delayed for only a month.

There was at least one occasion when history was created during the existence of a second chamber in Sri Lanka. That was when Mrs Bandaranaike won the 1960 July general election as leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. She had not contested the elections but as leader of the party with the largest number of seats, was invited by the Governor-General, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke to form the government. This was the first time that a person who was not an elected Member of Parliament became Prime Minister. She was appointed to the Senate thereby becoming the first Member of the Senate to be Prime Minister.

Following the victory of the United Front led by Mrs Bandaranaike in the 1970 General Election, prior to the adoption of the 1972 Republican Constitution, the Senate was dissolved in October 1971.

D C Ranatunga

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