A fundamental rights petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking an order that prison authorities produce the jailed Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera before courts wearing his bhikkhu robes rather than prison attire, the Daily Mirror reported.
The petition was filed on Thursday by retired Air Force officer Shantha Jayathilaka, according to Hiru News. The Commissioner General of Prisons, the Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General are named as respondents.
Gnanasara Thera is the General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena.
What the petition argues
The petitioner seeks a declaration that the decision to disrobe the Thera and produce him in court in prison attire violates fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 10, 12(1) and 14(1)(e) of the Constitution — the freedom of thought and conscience, equality before the law, and the freedom to manifest religion in worship, observance or practice.
He further relies on Article 9, which requires the State to give Buddhism the foremost place and to protect and foster it.
Two further arguments are advanced. The petitioner contends that Prison Standing Order 550 requires that an individual be permitted to wear clothing corresponding to the style of dress he previously used. He also argues that, under Buddhist disciplinary rules, a monk does not cease to be a monk merely because he has been found guilty of a secular criminal offence.
A qualification the filings do not address
The standing order as the petitioner describes it is framed to apply prior to conviction. Gnanasara Thera is a convicted prisoner serving a sentence, so whether that provision reaches his case is precisely the question the Supreme Court would have to decide. Neither newsroom reports any response to this point, and this desk notes it as an open legal question rather than a defect in the petition.
It also runs against the position the Department of Prisons has already stated publicly. As reported when all four Mahanayaka Theras told Prisons that only the Maha Sangha may remove a monk’s robes, the department’s position is that the uniform is required for any sentence above a three-year threshold.
How the sentence arises
Gnanasara Thera was sentenced by the Court of Appeal to six years’ imprisonment for contempt of court over his conduct during proceedings at the Homagama Magistrate’s Court.
The Supreme Court subsequently annulled the presidential pardon granted to him by former President Maithripala Sirisena, which resulted in the enforcement of the remaining portion of that sentence.
The petition lands a day after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake appointed a committee to draft amendments on how jailed monks are held, while rejecting any bypassing of existing prison law.
Not reported
Neither filing says when the petition will be supported or taken up, whether interim relief has been sought, or who appears for the petitioner. Neither reports any response from the Commissioner General of Prisons, the Ministry of Justice or the Attorney General, and neither states whether the Bodu Bala Sena or Gnanasara Thera himself is associated with the petition.
Sources: Daily Mirror, Hiru News.
