<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recent arrest of a high-ranking chief prelate for the alleged sexual abuse of a minor inside one of Sri Lanka\u2019s most sacred shrines has sent shockwaves through the nation. Predictably, the crisis has reignited the perennial debate over Article 9 of the Constitution, which mandates that the Republic shall give to Buddhism the \u201cforemost place\u201d and makes it the explicit duty of the State to \u201cprotect and foster the Buddha Sasana.\u201d For decades, critics and defenders alike have treated Article 9 as proof that Sri Lanka is fundamentally a non-secular state. But as the horrific details of institutional rot come to light, a far more dangerous misunderstanding has emerged: the false belief that Article 9 somehow limits the government’s ability to police the clergy or forces the state to tread lightly around sacred spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a profound misreading of constitutional law. Article 9 is not a shield designed to insulate rogue monastics from accountability, nor is it a justification for state paralysis. On the contrary, when the integrity of the Sasana is threatened from within, Article 9 hands the government an aggressive, interventionist mandate to act\u2014one that goes far beyond the limits of ordinary civil law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Baseline: The Myth of the Monastic Shield<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To understand the true power of Article 9, one must first separate the criminal from the institutional. There is no dispute that ordinary criminal law applies to all citizens universally. Under Article 12(1) of the Constitution, everyone is equal before the law, and monastic robes carry absolutely no legal immunity. The police and the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) are rightfully carrying out criminal proceedings, and the accused monk faces the same judicial system as any layperson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, ordinary criminal law only punishes the individual for the specific crime against the victim. It does not\u2014and cannot\u2014protect the broader religious ecosystem from the existential fallout of that crime. This is where Article 9 is meant to activate. When an individual\u2019s actions bring unprecedented disrepute to the faith, the state\u2019s constitutional duty does not end at a prison cell door. It requires immediate, structural intervention to surgically detach the accused from the institution they have compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asymmetrical Power: The Clerk vs. The Clergy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When an ordinary corporate executive or celebrity is arrested for a crime, the government\u2019s powers over their livelihood are strictly limited. Due to constitutional protections regarding the freedom of occupation and private property, the state cannot arbitrarily seize a businessman’s company, freeze his corporate assets, or ban him from his place of work unless they are directly tied to a physical crime scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But when a senior monk is accused of a crime that threatens the spiritual integrity of the nation, Article 9, working alongside statutory laws like the Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance of 1931, completely expands the state\u2019s toolkit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, the government has the explicit authority to enforce an immediate administrative decapitation. Under Sections 15 and 39 of the Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance, the Ministry of Buddhasasana has the unassailable right to suspend a monk from his administrative post as a temple trustee. Long before a final criminal verdict is reached, the state can install a provisional secular board to run the temple\u2019s daily operations, ensuring that the management of sacred lands is immediately stripped from tainted hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, the state has the power of financial and spatial containment. Because a temple’s wealth and geographic boundaries belong to the collective Buddha Sasana\u2014not to the individual monk\u2014the state can legally bar the accused from entering the sacred premises and freeze the temple\u2019s institutional accounts. This critical intervention prevents an accused predator from using collective religious donations to fund a private legal defense or utilizing his spiritual territory to intimidate witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Directing the Nikayas: The Mandate to Demand Purity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A common bureaucratic excuse used by politicians is that the state cannot strip a monk of his ecclesiastical status, as that power belongs exclusively to the internal tribunals (Karaka Sangha Sabha) of the respective monastic chapters (Nikayas). While it is legally true that the Ministry of Buddhasasana acts as a registrar and must wait for the clergy\u2019s verdict before striking a name from the State Monastic Register, this does not absolve the state of its duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the alleged crime is a catastrophic violation of the Dhamma, it strikes at the very heart of the Sasana that the state is constitutionally sworn to protect. Article 9 provides the Ministry with the ultimate moral and legal lever to formally direct and demand that the Mahanayakas (Chief Prelates) initiate expedited internal disciplinary proceedings. The state is not overstepping ecclesiastical boundaries by doing so; it is fulfilling a mandatory constitutional directive to ensure the purity of the monastic order. By aggressively choking an accused monk’s administrative and financial power through the Temporalities Ordinance, the state effectively forces the hand of the slower clerical councils to act out of institutional survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion: An Instruction to Act<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Whenever a high-profile crisis involves the clergy, governments routinely hide behind the sensitive nature of religion, using Article 9 as an excuse for passive non-interference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This must stop. Article 9 does not just command the state to protect Buddhism from external critics or historical decay; it commands the state to protect Buddhism from internal rot. The gravity of recent events proves that leaving a compromised figure in a position of spiritual and material authority causes irreversible harm to public trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The legal framework is already in place. The state possesses the power to suspend, to freeze, to bar, and to demand swift monastic justice. When authorities hesitate to use these tools, they are not respecting the “foremost place” of Buddhism\u2014they are actively violating their constitutional oath to protect it. Article 9 is an instruction to act, and it is time the government treated it as one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Lalith Chandrakantha<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The recent arrest of a high-ranking chief prelate for the alleged sexual abuse of a minor inside one of Sri Lanka\u2019s most sacred shrines has sent shockwaves through the nation. 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Predictably, the crisis has reignited the perennial debate over Article 9 of the Constitution, which mandates that the Republic shall give to Buddhism the \u201cforemost…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hari-maga.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}