> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # President Defended a Prison Rule for Monks. Then He Moved to Change It. - URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/president-defended-a-prison-rule-for-monks-then-he-moved-to-change-it/ - Published: 2026-10-11T16:15:03.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-11T16:15:03.000Z - Author: Our Reporter - Tags: October 2026 **COLOMBO, Sri Lanka —** President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told Sri Lanka’s most senior Buddhist monks on Thursday that he would not set aside prison regulations for a single prisoner. “If the law becomes my will, it will be interpreted and implemented according to what I like and dislike,” he said. “That is not appropriate.” At the same meeting, he proposed rewriting those regulations within two weeks. The changes under discussion would allow convicted monks to wear their robes outside prison on the recommendation of their monastic orders. Prison officials had applied the rules for years, including to dozens of monks now serving sentences. The government ordered an urgent review only after the rules were applied to Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, a prominent hard-line Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist. His treatment drew protests from the country’s highest Buddhist authorities. Complaints from other communities have been handled differently. Muslim health workers who asked to wear religious attire on duty were told to follow existing regulations until those regulations were formally amended. In Jaffna, Tamil landowners have protested for more than a year against a Buddhist temple built on land that local officials have confirmed is privately owned. Their dispute has not been resolved. For the Buddhist clergy, the president convened a meeting himself, appointed a committee and gave his justice minister a deadline. ### **A Rule Defended, Then Reopened** On Oct. 6, the government defended the rule without qualification. Nalinda Jayatissa, the cabinet spokesman, said prison officials had acted under the Prisons Ordinance when they removed Gnanasara’s robes. He said the same procedure applied to all 63 Buddhist monks then serving prison sentences. Senaka Palletenna, a spokesman for the prisons department, said inmates sentenced to rigorous imprisonment must wear prison clothing whatever their status. Gnanasara had appeared that day before the Colombo High Court in prison clothing. He is serving the rest of a six-year sentence imposed in 2018 for contempt of court and for criminal intimidation of Sandya Eknaligoda. Her husband, the political cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda, disappeared in 2010. President Maithripala Sirisena pardoned Gnanasara in 2019, after he had served about nine months. The Supreme Court overturned the pardon on Sept. 10 and restored the sentence. Gnanasara went into hiding and was arrested several weeks later. The Buddhist establishment objected within days of his court appearance. The Kotte Sangha Sabha protested the removal of his robes, and the Mahanayake Theros, who lead the three principal monastic orders, wrote to the commissioner general of prisons. Opposition politicians argued that only a monk’s own order, or Nikaya, has the authority to disrobe him. Petitions were filed in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. On Oct. 8, Mr. Dissanayake received the senior prelates at the Presidential Secretariat. According to the President’s Media Division, a five-member committee was appointed that day, chaired by Prince Senadheera, secretary to the Ministry of Buddhasasana. It held its first meeting the next day and is expected to present proposals to the Buddhist clergy by the middle of next week. Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara has been instructed to complete the legal changes within two weeks. The clergy have asked that a monk’s Nikaya be notified whenever he is sentenced to more than three years. They have also asked that convicted monks be permitted to wear robes outside prison when their religious authorities recommend it. Mr. Dissanayake has not ordered Gnanasara’s robes returned, and the sentence stands. The president can therefore say that he has not overridden the law for one prisoner. His government has nonetheless reopened, within two days, a rule it had called mandatory. ### **Same Rules, Different Responses** At Thursday’s meeting, the president acknowledged that other convicted monks were wearing prison clothing at that moment. He also noted that Gnanasara had worn it during his imprisonment in 2018\. None of those cases had led to a review. Muslim women seeking religious accommodation in public hospitals have received a different response. In August, newly appointed Muslim health assistants at Kalmunai North Base Hospital said they had been barred from working in their religious attire. Five complaints were filed with the Human Rights Commission’s office in Kalmunai. Mr. Jayatissa, who is also the health minister, said the women must follow the uniform rules in a 2019 circular until any changes were formally considered and approved. His ministry promised interim measures and a permanent policy. A year earlier, in October 2025, Public Administration Minister A. H. M. H. Abayarathna said the uniform rules for Muslim nurses would stay as they were. He said his ministry had received no formal recommendation to change them. The two cases differ in law. One concerns public employees at work, and the other concerns convicted prisoners taken outside prison. In both, however, the government gave the same reason: the regulations stand until they are properly amended. The Muslim health workers were left to wait for a recommendation to move through the bureaucracy. In the monks’ case, the president started the process himself and set the deadline. In Thaiyiddy, north of Jaffna, Tamil residents have protested for more than a year against the Tissa Vihara, a Buddhist temple built on land they say belongs to their families. The Thellippalai divisional secretary has told district coordination meetings that the land is privately owned, and government agencies have acknowledged the finding. The temple still stands. A land dispute is harder to resolve than a clothing regulation. The landowners, however, have received no timetable of any kind. ### **The Weight of the Clergy** Article 9 of Sri Lanka’s Constitution gives Buddhism “the foremost place” and obliges the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana. Governments have long deferred to the senior prelates on questions beyond religion. In 2017, the Asgiriya and Malwatte chapters declared a new constitution unnecessary, and the reform effort of that period stalled. Mr. Dissanayake’s National People’s Power government came to office promising to apply the law equally and end the favoritism of earlier administrations. Refusing Gnanasara an individual exemption kept faith with that promise. Revising outdated prison regulations, or consulting religious leaders about them, is not improper in itself. The issue is timing and access. A rule applied to dozens of monks for years became urgent only when it reached a politically prominent one. Grievances raised by minority communities have moved far more slowly. The amendments have not yet been adopted. Gnanasara remains in prison and is due before the Colombo High Court on Oct. 23 in a separate case involving an alleged insult to Islam. By then, the government’s two-week deadline will have passed.