The Committee appointed by Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitution Reforms to review the laws and regulations on noise pollution of Sri Lanka handed over its report to the Minister on 26 th March 2024. The mandate of the Committee was to study and propose necessary changes to such laws and make suggestions to include new laws if needed in order to bring them on par with global standard settings.
Accordingly, the Committee carefully analyzed the international standards on noise pollution and proposed several changes to the existing legal framework on noise pollution in Sri Lanka. Particularly, much needed amendments were suggested to statutes such as the Penal Code, Motor Traffic Act and Police Ordinance to make the legal response to the noise pollution more effective. While certain regulations were proposed to be amended for the purpose of widening their application towards often unnoticed incidents of noise pollution, the Committee also suggested to publish new regulations under the National Environmental Act to address the Community noise pollution in Sri Lanka. In addition, with the aim of empowering the police to deal with complaints of noise pollution, certain amendments were proposed to the existing police circulars on the matter.
The Committee consisted of 11 members chaired by Hon. Justice Mahinda Samayawardhena, Judge of the Supreme Court. Other members of the Committee were Mr. Parinda Ranasinghe, President’s Counsel, Senior Additional Solicitor General, Attorney General’s Department, Mrs. Piyumanthi Peiris, Attorney-at-Law, Additional Secretary (Legal) of the Ministry of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms, Mrs. R.H.M. Pathma Abeykoon, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Mr. P.B. Hemantha Jayasinghe, Director General, Central Environmental Authority, Dr. Sanjaya Ratnayake, Attorney-at-Law, Deputy Director General, Central Environmental Authority, Mr. Kamal Priyantha, Director, Central Environmental Authority, Mrs. Lochana G. Punchihewa, Attorneyat-Law, Assistant Legal Draftsman, Legal Draftsman’s Department, Mr. Ruwan Gunasekera, Attorneyat-Law, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Legal), Dr. Ravindranath Dabare, Attorney-at-Law, Mrs. Chathurika Wijesinghe, Attorney-at-Law. Mrs. Jalashi Lokunarangoda, Attorney-at-Law, Assistant
Secretary (Legal), Ministry of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms, was the Convener of the Committee and Mr. Ishan Kuruwita Arachchi (LL.B First Class Honours (Colombo)) provided research assistance.
The Committee completed its task within the given time frame of two months and in that process, it considered the views of Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne, President’s Counsel, Prof. Kokila Konasinghe from the University of Colombo, and Prof. Rev. Induragare Dhammaratana Thero from the University of Kelaniya.
