By Colombo Telegraph –
The Sri Lankan Government set the procedure in motion to impeach its Chief Justice today, when three UPFA MPs led by Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi handed a motion of impeachment over to Speaker of Parliament, Chamal Rajapaksa a short while ago.
Chief Justice Bandaranayake
The motion was handed over at the auspicious time of 10.12 a.m. by Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Deputy Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna and MP Arundika Fernando.
The motion has been signed by 117 Members of Parliament. The constitutional requirement for the Speaker of Parliament to entertain a motion of impeachment against a sitting Chief Justice is 75 signatures or one third of the 225-member legislature. To be carried, the motion requires a simple majority of the total seats in the house or 113.
According to Government sources, the motion has been filed under Article 107 of the constitution pertaining to the appointment and removal of judges, on charges of ‘improper conduct’.
The move to impeach the head of the Sri Lankan judiciary follows weeks of growing tensions between the executive and judicial officers, compounded by the Supreme Court’s blockade on the controversial Divi Neguma legislation that seeks to accrue powers devolved to the provinces and massive funds to a department functioning under powerful Government Minister
Basil Rajapaksa. As recently as three weeks ago however, Leader of the House Minister
Nimal Siripala De Silva rubbished claims of an impending impeachment attempt against Chief Justice
Shirani Bandaranayake and said the ruling coalition was committed to ensuring the independence of the judiciary.
It is the first time in Sri Lanka’s judicial history that a motion of impeachment has been filed against a Chief Justice by the same Government that made the appointment. Attempts to impeach a chief justice last occurred in November 2003 when the then United National Front Government headed by
Ranil Wickremesinghe tried to impeach former Chief Justice
Sarath N. Silva. However the Government was dissolved by President
Chandrika Kumaratunga shortly afterwards, scuttling the move.
PresiDunce Bean / November 1, 2012
“The motion was handed over at the auspicious time of 10.12 a.m.” Ha…haa…so they have auspicious times for impeachment too. One day there will be an auspicious time when the people realise that it’s time to kick out the Rajapaksas’. For the moment, like in a Hindi movie it looks like the bad guys are winning…and like the Indian saying goes…”Everything will be alright in the end…and if it isn’t alright, it isn’t the end.”
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Brian de Bois Guilbert / November 1, 2012
PresiDunce
Who’s going to kick Rajapaksa’s ??? You ? :) Don’t make me laugh
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mike / November 1, 2012
Maybe Bandula Jayasekera??
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Leela^s cousin / November 1, 2012
why do you feel that B J could kick Rajapaskshe ? Who is BJ ?
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Bandula / November 1, 2012
The history says our last king..Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe also waited until the auspicious time to come to run away from palace and while he was waiting for auspicious time, he got caught to British spies. There is a big difference between our auspicious time and Indian, chinese, Vietnamese, USA etc. May be this auspicious time could back-fire.
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Ben Hurling / November 2, 2012
At this rate Rajapakse dictarors will be kicked out a lot earlier than we thinnk.
This is a good lesson to corrupt judiciary of Sri Lanka as well.
One corrupt branch of government battling another corrupt branch.
May God Bless Sri Lanka
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Dayan / November 1, 2012
When will the Rajapass brothers be impeached?!
The time is drawing near for the people of Lanka to overthrow this wretched criminal crooked family of uneducated goons..
Time a war crimes case was brought against Gota the white van goon and his brothers..
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Dayan / November 1, 2012
When will the Rajapassa brothers be impeached?!
The time is drawing near for the people of Lanka to overthrow this wretched criminal crooked family of uneducated goons..
Time a war crimes case was brought against Gota the white van goon and his brothers..
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kangetta / November 1, 2012
It is reasonable that the present Government’s need to remove C.J. But why does the U.N.P. campaign to remove her. From this behavior the only conclusion that one could draw is that she is an unbiased Judge. All the culprits want to remove her.
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Nisal Amarasingha / November 1, 2012
What a bunch of supersticios nincompoops. They need an auspicious time to hand over a motion to the speaker to initiate an inauspicious witch hunt against the Chief Justice that they appointed with all the fanfare.Wonder whether they also recited some “Was Kavi”as well at the nearest kovil or Temple to bring bad luck to the C.J and her family.
These are our Sinhala Buddhists that practice the teachings of the Buddha. These are selfish Slipper licking followers of the dictatorial President, not men or women of learning or principle.
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Leela^s cousin / November 1, 2012
Quoted from yours:
“These are selfish Slipper licking followers of the dictatorial President, not men or women of learning or principle”
This is becoming fact- majority of the folks are incapable of seeing the reality,
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Lester / November 1, 2012
No doubt this judge, in the past, gave a green light to Rajapakse Ltd. to carry out all manner of corruptions. But just like Sarath Fonseka after the war, her utility value has suddenly expired. On the other hand, it is no small matter that Rajapakse Ltd. is going after the highest court in the land. It can only mean that “Divi Neguma” is corruption on the highest scale.
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shankar / November 1, 2012
[According to Government sources, the motion has been filed under Article 107 of the constitution pertaining to the appointment and removal of judges, on charges of ‘improper conduct’.]
What is the improper conduct charges here?her husband doing what he allegedly did is the improper conduct of a separate individual.I wonder whether the charges have to be framed first or the parliament can just go ahead and impeach her without discussing and proving what the improper conduct is?If the parliament goes ahead and impeaches her without framing the improper conduct charges will it be a violation of the article 107 of the constitution,which clearly states removal on improper conduct?What baffles me is what is the improper conduct?
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Godaya / November 1, 2012
shankar,
BBC interviewed a human rights lawyer this mornig.
According to him the estrangement between the Govt. and the judiciary
started with the incident of a minister threatening a magistrate which
was simply ignored by the Govt. Another incident was that a judge was suspended for misbehaviour and there was pressure from higher-ups for his re-instatement since the suspended judge happened to be a close froend of Namal.
A third case is the ruling by supreme court on the Divi Neguma bill
that before passing the Bill all provinces should agree.
The Northern Provincial Election was not held until now, so there was a move to get the agreement of the Governor- who is an appointee by the Govt. and NOT elected by the people of the concerned province.
So you can see how the Govt. is adament to get this Bill passed to enable Basil R controling the finances, without provinces having no say.
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Uthungan / November 1, 2012
The writing is on the wall.
Look out DEW Gunasekera,Tissa Vitarana,Rauf Hakeem, Douglas Devananda,KP,Pottu Amman,Pillayan band wagon &GLP wait for the announcement.
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MERLIN / November 1, 2012
Whatever the constitution says, whatever the law says, is immaterial.It is what the RAJA PAKSAYAS, says that goes.they will circumvent the law and the Constitution and do as they please, nobody can do anything about it. Havent you realised this ?. Should anybody try to do anything, then they will end up the way all the unpatriotic people of this country did: like the CJ, like SF, like the SECY of the JSC,like LASANTHA,like the white van victims, like the journalists who either dissappeared or met with their fate, and like everybody else who were “un-patriotic. When there was the chance at the begining to deal with the situation why did Sarath Silva the ex CJ let him off the hook on the Hambantota Tsunami fund fraud? because his back was scratched, and now that fool is also paying for it. Then again, who put these RAJA-PAKSAYAS, into power? The people of this country, you and I, AND WE DESERVE what we get. The only thing which they keep harping on, is that they ended the tiger war. But the man who lead the victory on the ground was surreptiously swept away and the rest we know is history.
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / November 1, 2012
I am quite perturbed. We should all be. However, let us see what the impeachment motion accuses the CJ of. Further, it will be interesting to see what the latest decision of the Supreme Court on the Divineguma bill is.
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran.
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Bedrock Barney / November 2, 2012
The charges will be that she did not do as she was told. Simple.
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Waruna Illukpitiya / November 1, 2012
This thread is SOOOO biased against the Rajapakses, it’s quite funny actually. :-)
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hansan / November 1, 2012
biginning of the end, Just don’t touch her.
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Leela^s cousin / November 1, 2012
why you say that ? will SRILANKA become a country like Somalia or the similar ?
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Curious / November 5, 2012
YES, SHE WILL OPEN THE GOVT, PANDORA’S BOX.
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Leela / November 1, 2012
Being a personality who crept into apex court over heads of a line of lifetime working judges through the backdoor with another executive president’s muscle, current CJ should have known that this is no Pakistan as some commentators here wrote but a popular and a powerful president in office. CJ could have rolled out judgments purely based on law had she abide the laws and procedures to the letter, and her husband stayed lily white. So, let’s see the impeachment charges before jumping to pass judgement.
Leela
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Senguttuvan / November 1, 2012
MJ – Pls allow me to disagree with you. This shameful culture is of recent origin. Except for the controversies involving Justices T. S. Fernando and Jaya Pathirana during Felix Dias’s time the relationship between the judiciary and the executive, proper elevation of our CJ’s were matters that enriched our decent society. Even during the 1977-1993 period things were not as low as they are now – inspite of the Neville Samarakoon spat. The rot set in when that Gentleman-jurist Justice Mark Fernando was crudely side-stepped. Thereafter, the culture of what the Indian Minister Salman Khurshid said took over
“It is good for a Supreme Court Judge to know a little of the law;
but more important to know the Law Minister” I don’t think we have hit the bottom yet. As a wag commented “the Gang-family in their wisdom may decide it is time young Namal got a little law practise. The position of CJ is a good place to start the training”
What should concern all of us is that where when a ruling clique plays around with the higher judiciary they cause the burial of the last remnants of civilised society living under the law. The country has witnessed with concern the animals have taken over in different forms in different fields and various part of the country in recent years. It will be more manifestations of the Law of the Jungle in the coming months unless there is divine or equal intervention here.
Senguttuvan
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MERLIN / November 2, 2012
The wheels of divine juctice grinds slowly but surely, and none who have perpetrated injustice on others in whatever guise will escape. We have only to look back in time, both in our own land and internationally to see the veracity of this saying. This judgement will befall the current regime too both individually and collectively, but may not be when we want it to be ,but when it is decreed to be.Then,when that happens, and the ‘mighty’ fall, what a fall that will be; not wishful thinking, but historically proven.No ammount of flowers, offerings, or banna recitals, will vindicate their treacherous doings. THEY will boil in their own oil and be barbequed over the coals of eternal hell fire, for all the injustice they continue to heap on people.
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Leela / November 2, 2012
MERIN.
No matter to whom you pledged that curse to, I can say it is completely vindicated because Rajapakses have been elected to office with increased majority at every election. It seems your curse has changed direction towards the opposition for their brawls has no end in sight. hi hi.
Leela
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Senguttuvan / November 2, 2012
“Rajapakses elected to office with increased margins at every election” is a blatant untruth. In 2006 it was after coming into agreement with the LTTE/VP (estimated 800,000 votes) and conniving with the JVP, who sabotaged the Polling Cards with JVP Grama Sevakas
and their men in the postal department (estimated 500,000 votes) Namal R was caught in film in London with leading LTTE wheeler-dealer Emil Kanthan in London, which the Rajapakse clique ensured was kept away from the people. Otherwise, Ranil – the clear winner. In the last P/Election Gen. Fonseka was widely believed to be the winner where the then Election Commissioner is widely believed to have done a business deal to deny Fonseka his victory. Many will remember the EC was missing for several hours in the late hours of the night. People in the Ambalangoda District voted overwhelmingly for their son of the soil Gen Fonseka – but the results was to prove he lost even Ambalangoda. Karu Jayasuriya produced bundles of polling cards to the Mahanayakas, which were found in some swamp in the Ratmalana area. That election was fraudulent. Even today Sarath Fonseka maintains he won the Presidential Election.
Senguttuvan
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American Lanka Lover / November 3, 2012
My apologies to the CJ and all who seek justice in SL for initially believing that the REAL reason the evil Mahinda has decided to declare war on her was the corruption of her husband. While I dont doubt her husband is corrupt, in light of the just released ICJ report it is impossible to believe that said corruption is the reason Mahinda has turned on her.
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