The Attorney General informed the Supreme Court that it has been proposed to remove all offenses related to the Excise Ordinance from the Organized Crime Prevention Bill, which the government has presented to Parliament.
Furthermore, Solicitor General Viraj Dayaratne, appearing on behalf of the Attorney General, gave an undertaking before the Supreme Court yesterday that, regarding intellectual property offenses, only those pertaining to copyright would be removed from the Bill. This agreement was reached today (09) when twenty-six petitions challenging the relevant Bill presented to Parliament by the Government were taken up once again before the Supreme Court.
During the proceedings, President’s Counsel Saliya Pieris, appearing on behalf of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, pointed out to the Court that even the President had recently stated publicly that amendments should be made to this Bill.
President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva, M.A. Sumanthiran, and other lawyers representing several other petitioner parties submitted to the Court that it would be appropriate to consider further matters only after the petitioners have been informed regarding the proposed amendments.