Untitled - International Commission of Jurists

Language (Special Provisions) Act No. 28 of 1958 was bypassed. Regulations under
this statute were delayed when their legal validity was contested. 18
In protest, the Federal Party embarked on its ‘satyagraha’ (peaceful protest) campaign
that brought the administration of government affairs in the North-East to a halt. The
government then declared a state of emergency under the PSO. The purported reason
for the declaration was that the activities of the Federal Party and the Satyagraha
campaign had resulted in the breaking down of essential services in the Northern and
Eastern Provinces, including obstruction to the distribution of the rice ration and
delays in the payment of salaries and allowances.
A number of Tamil leaders were detained on security grounds pursuant to the
emergency regulations. Amidst the uproar that followed, Tamil politicians openly
articulated secessionist demands. This period saw the government using emergency
powers to an extent far beyond their original rationale; thus, even after the Federal
Party leaders were released and the Government had controlled this situation by the
end of 1961, emergency rule continued into the beginning of 1962. The continuation
of emergency was declared necessary to address the wave of strikes and civil
disturbances incited by leftist and trade union leaders. At the start of 1962, the
Government began to censor press publication of information concerning the strikes.
The aborted coup of 27 January, 1962 – an attempt to overthrow the Bandaranaike
government by senior army and police officials – took place in this context. The
conspirators were arrested, detained and investigated under PSO emergency
regulations and later under the Criminal Justice (Special Provisions) Act, No. 1 of
1962 and Act No. 31 of 1962. 19
In 1965, the UNP returned to power and signed the Senanayake-Chelvanayakam Pact,
with the political objective of obtaining the assistance of the Federal Party. The Pact
paved the way for the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Regulations of 1966 20 and
the establishing of district councils. When this Pact, too, was abandoned, the Federal
Party left the government. The UNP was overthrown in 1970 by an SLFP led
coalition of leftist parties led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike. A Constituent Assembly was
formed to draft a new Constitution, but a number of Tamil parliamentarians walked
out on the basis that their demands for parity of status for languages were not being
heeded and that the draft Constitution did not contain any provision, similar to Section
29(2) of the Independence Constitution, aimed at the protection of minorities.
The first armed insurrection by the radical leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (People's
Liberation Front - JVP) took place in the South in 1971, based largely on the
economic marginalisation of Sinhala rural youth. A state of emergency was declared
and the provisions of the PSO were brought into force with full effect. The right to
conduct public meetings was restricted, press censorship was imposed and rights to
18 Sansoni Commission report, Sessional Paper VII, July 1980, at p. 72.
19 Enacted to try the alleged conspirators, these were determined, as ex post facto laws, to be ultra vires
by the Privy Council in Liyanage and others v. the Queen [1965] 68 NLR 265.
20 These Regulations were more satisfactory than the provisions in the 1958 Act in that the Tamil
language was allowed to become the language of administration in the North and East rather than the
far more limited stipulation that the 1958 Act permitted, of being used only for ‘prescribed
administrative purposes.’
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