A lawyer says the government has done serious damage to the country’s ethnic diversity by making it compulsory for law school students to study in English.
On March 21, the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Attorney-at-Law Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna was seen filming leaflets in front of the main entrance to the Ministry of Justice, displaying placards displaying the slogan ‘Do not discriminate between Sinhala and Tamil judicial languages’.
Attorney-at-Law Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna points out that under the guidance of the Minister of Justice, the language medium taught in the Law College has been made compulsory and the examinations conducted in English have been made compulsory by an Extraordinary Gazette Notification No. 2208/13 dated 30.12.2020 issued by the Incorporated Law Education Council. That there is.
“At the time of issuance of this Gazette, the relevant Institutional Legal Education Council has issued these two Gazette Notifications without understanding the two provisions relating to the Judicial Language of the Constitution or the Language of Legislation, namely Articles 23 and 24 of the Constitution.”
The lawyer points out that the two official languages of Sri Lanka are Sinhala and Tamil.
The Attorney-at-Law pointed out that by allowing the academic activities of the Sri Lanka Law College to be conducted only in English instead of conducting legal studies in those two languages, a serious crisis has arisen as to how cases can be heard in the judicial language of the Magistrates, District and High Courts.
He further told the media that in most of the developed countries of the world, the judiciary is conducted in the language of the majority of the people in that country.
Lawyer Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna has questioned whether legal education should be given only to those who know English.
He has further stated that steps will be taken to make all the people of the country aware of this.
Attorney-at-Law Aruna Laksiri Unawatuna is the Coordinator of the Public Legal Education Council and the Minister of Justice’s Strategies for Disenfranchisement of Citizens’ Right to Judicial Languages in Free Education and the Publication of 100,000 Legal Lecture Papers on the Establishment of the Sri Lanka Judicial Law College.