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States of Emergency - Centre for Policy Alternatives

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unduly conservative and restrictive tests <strong>for</strong> excluding its review<br />

over the executive. 335<br />

Even though there is some previous case law, 336 perhaps the<br />

watershed in the Supreme Court’s attitude towards a more robust<br />

role in the protection <strong>of</strong> fundamental rights is marked by the case<br />

<strong>of</strong> Joseph
 Perera
 v.
 Attorney
 General (1987), reported in 1992. 337<br />

The case primarily concerned freedom <strong>of</strong> expression and its<br />

permissible restriction under emergency regulations. Speaking <strong>for</strong><br />

the majority, Sharvananda C.J., held the purported exercise <strong>of</strong><br />

emergency powers (including the restriction <strong>of</strong> fundamental<br />

rights) was not unbounded in law. The Court interpreted the<br />

ouster clause in the PSO narrowly and asserted its competence to<br />

review the validity <strong>of</strong> emergency regulations against an objective<br />

test <strong>of</strong> necessity based on the proximity or rationality <strong>of</strong> the<br />

restrictive measure and the aim sought to be secured. What came<br />

to be known as the ‘rational nexus test’ (essentially a general<br />

requirement <strong>of</strong> reasonableness) in Joseph
 Perera
 has been later<br />

developed by the Supreme Court into an even more sophisticated<br />

test in respect <strong>of</strong> determining the procedural and substantive<br />

validity <strong>of</strong> emergency powers. 338<br />

Joseph
 Perera
 also signalled a wider space <strong>for</strong> a conception <strong>of</strong><br />

freedom <strong>of</strong> expression based on the UDHR, establishing that<br />

335<br />

See <strong>for</strong> e.g., the dicta <strong>of</strong> Wanasundera J. in Thadchanamoorthy
v.
<br />

Attorney
General
and
Others
(1978‐79‐80) 1 SLR 154; and Velmurugu
v.
<br />

Attorney
General
and
Another
(1981) 1 SLR 406<br />

336<br />

See <strong>for</strong> e.g., Vivienne
Gunawardene
v.
Perera
(1983) 1 SLR 305; Sudath
<br />

Silva
v.
Kodituwakku
(1987) 2 SLR 119; Edirisuriya
v.
Navaratnam
(1985)<br />

1 SLR 100; Nanayakkara
v.
Perera
(1985) 2 SLR 375<br />

337<br />

Joseph
Perera
v.
Attorney
General (1992) 1 SLR 19<br />

338<br />

See Sunila
Abeysekera
v.
Ariya
Rubesinghe
(2000) 1 SLR 314<br />

216

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