Rajiva Wijesinha

“ The claim that the Commander of the Army is not an officer of the army is preposterous. Mr Silva argues that the Act allows the President to appoint anyone fit and proper to be Army Commander, and this need not be a commissioned office, therefore the Army Commander ‘is neither a commissioned officer nor an enlisted soldier’.
It is possible that any outsider made Army Commander would not be considered an officer, but the assumption that an officer ceases to be one when he becomes Army Commander is untenable. ”

“ Having now studied the army acts, it is clear to me that there is nothing illegal in a military trial, and that Mr Silva’s claims regarding this are so farfetched that one wonders whether he himself believes them. ”

“ I don’t think it needs a degree in English to understand that the phrase ‘charged with the maintenance of public order’ refers here to ‘Forces’, not to their individual members. And it is the restrictions that law prescribes which should be in the interest of proper discharge of duty and the maintenance of discipline, not an arrest, which is simply concomitant to such law. ”