Contracts Commission (Special Provisions)

BE it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and the House of Representatives of Ceylon in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: –

1. This Act may be cited as the Contracts Commission (Special Provisions) Act, No. 34 of 1969.

2. Subject to the provisions of section 3, the Commission purporting to have been issued, under section 2 of the principal Act, by the Governor-General under the Seal of the Island on the 22nd day of October, 1965, and published in Gazette Extra ordinary No. 14,540 of the said date, in this Act referred to as the ” Contracts Commission “, shall be deemed, for the purposes mentioned in the said Commission, to have been and to be so validly issued, and the Commissioner appointed by or in the said Commission, in this Act referred to as ” the Commissioner “, shall be deemed, for such purposes, to have been and to be so validly appointed, and accordingly the provisions of the principal Act and any other written law shall be deemed, for such purposes, to have applied and to apply in the case of the said Commission and the Commissioner in like manner and to the same extent as they would have applied and would apply if, apart from the preceding provisions of this section, the said Commission and the said Commissioner had been so validly issued and so validly appointed.

3. Subject to the succeeding provisions of this Act, the provisions of section 2 shall not apply to the Contracts Commission and the Commissioner in so far and in so far only as such Commission and the Commissioner were purported to have been issued and appointed for any purposes connected with or relating to the Kandy Water Supply Contract, and accordingly such Commission and the Commissioner shall be deemed not to have been and not to be validly issued and appointed by the Governor-General under the principal Act for any such purposes, and all proceedings held by or before the Commissioner for any such purposes shall be deemed to have been and to be null and void.

4. No civil or criminal proceedings shall be instituted or maintained against any person, whether in his capacity as the Commissioner, a witness, a counsel, a member of the staff of the Contracts Com mission, or a public officer or other person who tendered or tenders assistance or furnished or furnishes information to such Commission in any capacity whatsoever, in respect of any act bona fide done or omitted to be done, whether before or on or after the date of the commencement of this Act, by such person for any purposes mentioned in such Com- mission including in particular, but without prejudice to the generality of the preceding provisions of this section, any such purposes connected with or relating to the Kandy Water Supply Contract, and where any such proceedings in respect of any such act have been instituted in any court before that date, the court shall, on the application of any party, set aside or dismiss the proceedings, without making any award as to costs or expenses

5. No civil or criminal proceedings shall be instituted or maintained against any person, in his capacity as the proprietor or editor or printer or publisher of any newspaper, in respect of the bona fide publication, whether before or on or after the late of the commencement of this Act, in such news- paper of a report of the proceedings, or any part of he proceedings, of any inquiry or investigation held by or before the Contracts Commission, or of he report or recommendations, or any part of the report or recommendations, issued or made by the said Commission, for any purposes mentioned in the Commission (including any such purposes connected with or relating to the Kandy Water Supply Contract), and where any such proceedings in respect of any such publication have been instituted in any court before that date the court shall, on the application of any party, set aside or dismiss the proceedings, without making any award as to costs or expenses.

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