The Hulftsdorp court complex witnessed a revolution of some sort following the appointment of Colombo District Judge Frank Gunawardena, with Petitions being filed against him by lawyers the Colombo Telegraph learns.
Judge Gunawardena has taken the country’s main court complex by storm by being vehemently opposed to lawyers moving for ‘dates’. Instead following his appointment as Colombo District Judge, he has continuously insisted that Lawyers argue and end cases without moving for ‘dates’ on unsubstantiated grounds.
Gunawardena is the most senior District Judge in the country, and was appointed to the Colombo District court following the promotion of former Judge Sujatha Alahapperuma.
Gunawardena has created waves due to his uncompromising style, and novelty in hearing cases, which had been lacking within the Lankan judiciary according to many litigants and senior Lawyers.
However, despite this, the Colombo Telegraph reliably learns that certain lawyers have verbally and in writing complained to the Chief Justice regarding the judge.
Gunawardena has gained a reputation for insisting on speedy conclusion of trials before him and has consistently against written submissions often insisting Lawyers to argue matters in open court.
“He insists on verbally arguing cases which is actually a lawyers job. That was how lawyers argued cases in the Golden Era of the Lankan judiciary until it slowly diluted into written submissions which made lawyers basic journalists” a senior Presidents Counsel told Colombo Telegraph on the condition of anonymity.
The late S.L Gunasekara in his book ‘Lore of the Law and other memories’ specifically called for a reform to the system of Written Submissions and instead insisted on oral argument of cases.
“He told my lawyer that he wants the case heard today. In open court he berated a lawyer who had taken two years to settle issues and said he was disgusted by this practice. After having come to court all these years, it sounded like a breath of fresh air. Earlier either my lawyer or the opposing side would give some reason or the other and move for a date and the judges don’t bat an eyelid when giving a date- leaving us with no hope and high expenses” a litigant told Colombo Telegraph.
The laws delays have been a focal point, with some litigation taking over a decade to conclude in all courts across the island.
Mohan Pieris who was sitting as Chief Justice previously issued strict instructions for the speedy conclusion of cases, however, the continuous dominance of lawyers and adherence to archaic procedure has resulted in the instructions not conformed to.
Gunawardena a career judicial officer has served in many outstation areas prior to his current posting and is known for his uncompromising integrity and the fact that he cannot be intimidated.
According to unverified reports, the Colombo Telegraph learns that Gunawardena was not given his due transfer or promotion due to berating Gotabaya Rajapaksa on the witness stand during the ‘Sunday Leader‘ trial in which the then powerful Rajapaksa was a witness.
Gunawardena had reportedly ordered Rajapaksa to desist from giving irrelavant information and to ensure that he sticks within the bounds of questioning as “he was only a witness in this courtroom”
The Colombo Telegraph learns that many lawyers are opposed to Gunawardena due to his insistence on hearing and concluding cases.
“Lawyers live on dates just like the arabs. They will bring up some archaic and/or nonsensical procedure and are used to being granted dates at the drop of a hat. Moment you have a Judge who wants to hear the case they all get intimidated. Some lawyers come to court only to move for a date not knowing head or tale of the case, but I am told that this man (Gunawardena )doesn’t give in to that kind of rubbish” another senior legal practitioner told Colombo Telegraph upon inquiry.
“A few decades ago a courtroom was a spectacle. Lawyers and the Judges always stood to ensure swift justice. That is why we saw members of the public throng to court houses for trials. It was a clash of intellect, wit and wisdom. Sadly today court houses are a bore and people have lost faith in the system because of two things. The non-independence of judges, and the laws delays. If we have an independent judiciary supplemented with judges and lawyers who want swift and proper justice the court rooms will win back the confidence and trust of the people” he said.
The Colombo Telegraph attempted to persuade the publishing of names of the two Senior Counsel, but they politely insisted on anonymity due to “professional reasons”.
Vibhushana / March 25, 2015
There is a retired woman I know whose in-laws have fraudulently taken over property in Ceylon after her husband passed away.
She lives in UK. The poor woman has to attend courts for over 10 years. She travels when there is a court date. This gets postponed often and gets dragged along.
After 10 years she won the case. However the other party is appealing. So she is forced to do it all over again.
There is something incredibly wrong the way cases are handled. No one thinks of the people whom the system exists to serve. In this case, the courts could have easily made it possible for her to attend courts over remote video conferencing for example.
This judge seems to be doing something different to expedite things that is welcome. Hope is catches on.
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Burning Issue / March 25, 2015
Vibhushana,
So you live in the UK I like to meet with you face-to-face. You see, the Thesavalami Law settles these matters pretty quickly!
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Saro / March 26, 2015
There is nothing in Thesavalamai law to expedite the process of trials and verdicts. There are cases in Jaffna that drag on more than a decade. This is one way of lazy lawyers inflate their income at the expense of the parties.
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Off the Cuff / March 26, 2015
This judge is Supreme Court material.
Imagine what he will achieve if he is a CJ one day.
Long Live District Judge Frank Gunawardena
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david strange / March 27, 2015
some lawyers are like “leeches … waiting to suck the blood from poor people who have cases to be resolved.There are of course many exceptions to this and this Judge has the moral courage to stand up and be counted so trust those honest lawyers will also now breathe a sigh of relief.
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Burning Issue / March 26, 2015
Saro,
Many aspects of Thesavalami Law are now obsolete but the aspects applicable to the properties still apply. The Thesavalami unambiguously delimit the Title Deeds of a property. I am not a fan of this Law as it stands now because male chauvinism is embedded in it.
For example, my father passed away and for my mother to transfer the family property to our sister, she needed the endorsement of the rest of the siblings. So the title of the property in entirety did not pass to my mother. My point is in relation to the case in question is that; Thesavalami Law would have laid the basis for the ownership of the Title Deeds. Once this is established, the rest cannot be convoluted. This is my point.
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Burning Issue / March 26, 2015
My post to Vibhushana is purely predicated on my previous encounters with him/her; this person’s contempt for the Tamil people is well recorded on these forums. My post to Vibhushana is no way an indication than I belittle this Judge’s good deeds.
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Off the Cuff / March 26, 2015
“Thesavalami Law settles these matters pretty quickly!”
How does it do that?
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Mallaiyuran / March 25, 2015
“Hope is catches on?”
I like to know what this Judge will say for judgment given out my the Muslim Judge that ” Vibushika can not be released”. In other words, the judgment is saying Vibushika is higher grade Tigress than the mother who was accused of hiding Gobi to revive LTTE. The Mother is released, at least with conditions, the child is not.
Will Jayakumari can file a case with this judge that she saw the picture of her son with in the rehabilitations photos released by the government and she wants to see him?
I like to know what the Northern land cases against the army’s land gripping will receives from this judge.
Here is a new Sinhala intellectual is being marketed. CT taking pride participation in that! This is another usual UNP-SLFP propaganda. That is it.
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Saro / March 26, 2015
“the judgment is saying Vibushika is higher grade Tigress than the mother who was accused of hiding Gobi to revive LTTE. The Mother is released, at least with conditions, the child is not”
The mother grieving for her lost son was arrested because of her vocal protest against inhuman and barbaric way the security forces arrest, torture and extra judicially kill whoever make vocal dissent. They had no case against her other 275 internees who also languish in detention for up to 23 years. Most of them have lost their identities and personalities due to severe torture.
The CID and TID were given free hand by the monsters Rajapaksas to use white vans and motor bikes to abduct or shoot in broad day light any who was perceived as against the familial rule.
Any one who support Gotabaya R directly or indirectly are also inhuman.
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Snowden Edward Asange / March 26, 2015
I go to Nikaweratiya courts almost every month for the last 8 years. The case is more than 32 years old . Its regarding a 70 acre property which my dad had bought. He passed away 27 years ago and we have to be present in court for a minute sometimes. Going all the way from south of Colombo is no easy task. Sadly two of the 3 of us who go are heart patients and most ridiculous thing is, the petitioner claimed she had interest and now what she claimed is claimed by the LRC.
Now she has pleaded with the LRC to lease the portion of land to her. She illegally has been cultivating paddy for that many years. Now the LRC has come to a settlement to lease it out to her. WE have been deprived of working and developing the land for the 32 years…whereby loss of employment, loss of income to state institutions and income for us have been deprived. We really dont understand how the judiciary works in SL.
Sadly my advice to people. DO NOT go to courts, settle amicably..its NOT worth it… the black coat lawyers just want to make the money off innocent people. I have self represented myself in traffic courts and got lucky a few times to get cases thrown… IN SL one cannot self represent nor make a Judge give us a hearing, everything has to go via a lawyer… Its all a game…. a case of you scratch my back I scratch yours.
I salute this Judge for being tough and for trying to mete out justice…
Justice delayed is justice denied !!!
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K.Soysa / March 25, 2015
AT LONG LAST, we have a decent judge who is doing something that every person involve in case would want to do. The lawyers, of course will not want this as they are compelled to expedite the case and thereby loose the “cash cow”. This man should be commended and we hope he will succeed.
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priyangika / March 25, 2015
I hope he is not transferred as he will be very unpopular with the lawyers.
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jayasingha / March 25, 2015
The BASL will start protesting against this Judge to get him transferred or to sack him.
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BH / March 25, 2015
More judges like this please, the best story I have read all day. Well said Sir!
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Ebola da Silva / March 25, 2015
A friend of mine has been to courts over 30 years.The case had gone through all the court houses.He always wins the case but the other party appeals.The lawyers of my friend does not site any infringement on the part of the party contesting my friend. The lawyers site only the legal issues but not the breach of the legal issues by the other side. This leaves him with the facility to appeal.
My friend concludes that the lawyers are colluding.
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Snowden Edward Asange / March 26, 2015
Lawyers are PROFESSIONAL Liars… They wrong a right and right a wrong… what a sad way to feed the kids…
There’s this story of how a lawyers son became a lawyer… The father handed over some of his OLD cases to the son so he may start work.. A case that the father had represented for over 20 years.. the son got a judgement passed and finished the case in 3 hearings.
He proudly went and told his dad… YOU took so many years to finish the case but couldnt.. and it took me ONLY 3 hearings to finish it.. The dad was pissed and laughed at the son and said..IDIOT, it is with such cases that I was able to educate you and provide for you for so long and now you closed the case… go look for new cases on your own leaving me with my old cases…
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Jagath Fernando / March 25, 2015
Jayawewa!!!
Yahapalanaya at its best.
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Lanka Watch / March 25, 2015
Jagath,
The credit goes to CJ. “Yalpanamaya” at tis best.
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Dr Kusuma / March 25, 2015
The best reading of the day. A Judge of rare calibre who works
with efficiency, diligently and with utmost integrity.Hope many others
will follow him. Our highest regards and respect to him.
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Kamal Nisanka / March 25, 2015
He has the skeleton and he is a very good judge and a person. One of the best judges n Sri Lanka who is mastered in Partition Law. Only negative factor is he talks too much but sometime very interesting . he gives a date for a lawyer but for a very justifiable reason. Lawyers do not know how to handle him because of lack of general knowledge .
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srilal / March 25, 2015
Is he presiding over Gota’s cases ? i heard that Jan 09 coup has been thrown out due to lack of evidence , had that case taken more seriously , definitely MR would have been spending rest of his time behind bars.
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maali karunaratne / March 25, 2015
I had a land case in Mount Lavinia courts. Believe me my lawyers and the defendant’s lawyer never asked for a postponement on unreasonable grounds.I was present in the courts and I noticed that DJ was also very strict in giving postponement.
But the sad part of it was that it took almost 11 years to complete the case and give decision at the District Court and it took about 7 years to complete the case as it went up to the Supreme Court. I counted the minutes and hours the case took at the DC, and I came to the conclusion that this case could have finished in 10 days in the DC and same amount of time at Appeal Court and Supreme Court.
I find my case was postponed to accommodate other cases. I feel if there are more courts, most of the problems of the litigants would be minimised. Are lawyers opposed to increasing the number of court houses?
There are many instances when lawyers asked for postponements on flimsy grounds and the DJ is lenient to give dates. One day the defendant’s lawyer asks for a postponement and on other day complainant’s lawyer asks for date. The client has to pay for these appearances even when the case is not taken up for hearing. If the client is a timid or poor, the lawyers treat them very badly. He takes the fees and shouts or literally barks at them.
Another point of delay is the police and the AG’s department. AG takes months of Sundays to study the case and assist the police officers. They languish in remand for years. Is the AG’s Department short staffed and can this be remedied?
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Plato. / March 25, 2015
Maali.
If anyone gets into Litigation in this country that person has sinned!
I never wanted to be a Lawyer notwithstanding two generations of Lawyers.
I never wanted to make a living on the miseries of others!
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maali karunaratne / March 26, 2015
Yes- My husband was a AAL, but both of us were of the opinion that he should not take to practice seeing how they behave. Apart from that when the lawyer takes up cases they do not inquire as to whether their client is ethically and legally correct. There are poor “landlords” who are played out by the tenants and this landlord has pays rent more than what he gets and that tenant sublets and make huge profit. Likewise there are unscrupulous landlords too.
They appear for criminals knowing that they committed a crime. I also know that they are presumed innocent until proved guilty but the lawyer knows what his client has done. I sent a lady friend to a lawyer to get a divorce and he wanted sexual favours and he looked a saint that I never suspected him. Then she went to another lady lawyer and succeeded.
But I also must admit that there are good lawyers. I don’t admire the late SL Gunasekera’s politics but even if a poor person approaches him he takes the same interest as he would do to a rich client and there are many like that
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punchinilame / March 25, 2015
Whilst this Judge must be praised for his outstanding style of serving Justice, I
wonder if the New Minister can table the back-log of Cases Court-wise and out-
standing years-wise commencing with two years and above in 2 year gaps? the
Minister should then take the worst site and compell them to work a double-
shift until a 50% reduction is achieved. This way we might lead the CW countries.
Over to you Hon. Minister Rajapakse – lets see you as a true friend of litigants!
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Navin / March 26, 2015
Hon Minister Rajapaksa is a MaRa bootlicker. THEREFORE, he must be a thief.
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Kumar / March 25, 2015
Go Gunawardena!!
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Nagananda / March 25, 2015
I salute the District Judge Gunawardena for not letting certain lawyers to dictate terms on their clients and the Court, those who try to take the entire justice system for ride. Frankly, we need this kind of an upright uncompromising judge in the office of the Chief Justice to get rid of justice delayed to the citizens of this island nation.
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Nagananda / March 25, 2015
I salute the District Judge Gunawardena for not letting certain lawyers to dictate terms on their clients and the Court system, those who try to take the entire justice system for ride. Frankly, we need this kind of an upright uncompromising judge in the office of the Chief Justice to get rid of justice delayed to the citizens of this island nation.
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Nagananda / March 25, 2015
There cannot be excuse for not complying with rules. Rules are there for a purpose and every lawyer should strictly adhere to the rule book. If there is a delay on the part of a lawyer the lawyer should be made to pay the penalty. The lawyers (both private and official bar) should not be allowed to abuse their clients.
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Kalu Nangi / March 26, 2015
Fixing dates and filing lists of witnesses, etc, can be done at the Court Registry itself. Why bring this up in court unnecessarily? The Registrar can consider the available dates of both sides and fix dates for argument of the case. There need not be any delays if the long process taken to bring a case up for argument can be reduced.
If most of the Lawyers are coming to court solely to make money out of “dates”, then there is something seriously wrong in the judicial system and in the legal education system in Sri Lanka. It is now serving only the lawyers whereas it should be serving the litigants, and only the litigants. Over to you Minister of Justice, lets see whether you have a backbone to change this corrupt system prevailing in the courts of Sri Lanka.
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Uthungan / March 25, 2015
District Court Judge Frank, is being true to his name, he is frank and unbiased,
He should resist being pressurised by the higher ups in the judiciary or by the Justice Minister and should carry on with his work as long as he knows that is fair and correct.
It would be a boon to poor litigants, when their cases are disposed fairly, quickly and efficiently without their having to feel anxious or worried about the delay, expense and the outcome.
The lawyers will then perk up and perform their task without resorting to delaying tactics to exploit the situation.
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D.E.M.O Krazy / March 26, 2015
Judge Frank Gunawardena,
This is the way Courts should function!
Thank you.
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Paddy / March 26, 2015
If we had just a handful more judges like him, then Sri Lanka truly will be paradise.
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Wits End / March 26, 2015
‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ is an age old English adage. I laud this judge Frank Gunawardana. I hope the other spineless judges will follow suit. It is long enough that the black coated parasites have been allowed to feast on human misery.
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bo / March 26, 2015
Black coats are crooks. MS, do one thing please. Please put black coats under control, and bring in a reform to open up the courts to self representing. I cannot see what is wrong with it, if they could do it.
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vas / March 26, 2015
The problems of sri lanka emanates from corrupt lawyers. There is no law in this country it is run on the rules of lawyers geared to earn money. Cap it all they have filled up parliament as well and no wonder it is not working and corruption is rife. Yasapalanaya will never succeed until these corrupt lawyers are brought to book and regulated. I am glad the DJ has finally brought the matter to public scrutiny.
I am aware of a case where a false deed has been written and the case is in court for fraud. Now the same lawyer has written another deed disclaiming that the buyer has any claim on the land. Both registered in the land Registry. RULE OF LAWYERS! AMAZING! Whither Sri Lanka!
!
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Mahen / March 26, 2015
I am so glad to hear of this judge who is doing the job for which he is appointed.
But reading the columns above I am surprised that the judicial system has deteriorated to such a low point in our country that today we are pleasantly surprised and shower praise on a judge who is doing his duty, a matter that would have been taken for granted fifty years ago!
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Citizen Perrra / March 26, 2015
I only hope that he would not be kicked out by the BASL saying that his appointment is “void ab-initio”. If we call this era as Yahapalanaya then the legal fraternity must act legally and not through thuggery.
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shankar / March 26, 2015
He should be made the Chief Justice.The present CJ has postponed a case concerning the former Cheap Justice helping in ripping off the public of 600 million rupees by dockyard on the flimsy grounds that 2 judges did not want to hear the case on personal grounds.The CJ should have immediately sacked the two judges and heard the case himself on that day.On the next date he could have appointed 2 more judges.
lawyers should be asked to pay a fine of 5000 rupees if a case is postponed, regardless of the reason, to cover the court costs.
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Aela / March 26, 2015
Long live Frank Gunawardena, may your tribe increase!
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vishvajith / March 26, 2015
Judge Frank Gunawardana, a Sirisena in our courts. Go on both of you. The Nation Salutes you.
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Maghribi / March 26, 2015
Day light robbers aka ‘Lawyers’ will fight back to keep the system corrupt to make a quick buck.
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Douglas / March 27, 2015
At least we have now heard of ONE judge who is calling a spade a spade. If I say this, pardon me: This system in courts belongs to another well rounded “MAFIA”. Can you remember during the days of Ex Minister of Justice Late Mr. Felix Dias Bandaranayake tried to “crush” this menace by bringing in a legislation to expedite the disposal of cases that were hanging some times for decades. But what happened to him? I hope YAHAPALANAYA will put matters into correct place.
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truth finder / March 27, 2015
Justice delayed is justice denied!
Most of the time lawyers ask for postponement because they get paid for the sittings! There are judges funded by lawyers for this! Will his dream come true!
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Yasin / March 27, 2015
Hon.Frank Gunawardena is indeed an exception and what we need currently are many more of his calibre. However, the “leeches” will work hard to keep their side
soaked in blood. 75 percent of the lawyers are corrupt and blood suckers and will continue to suck until last drop of blood. Property cases are the worst as they drag on for decades due to unethical postponements due to absenteeism of the respondents connected to the case or the original claimant or respondent
passing away.
Hon Frank Gunawardena belongs to the vanishing species of non time wasters and expecting more of his type would just be a dream.
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