{"id":124184,"date":"2014-05-06T17:28:26","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T11:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=124184"},"modified":"2014-05-07T15:59:41","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T10:29:41","slug":"appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/","title":{"rendered":"Appointment Of Jayawardena To SC Sends Shockwaves Across Entire Judicial System: UNP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As part of its plan to emasculate the country\u2019s judiciary, the Rajapaksa government has deliberately made a mockery of important appointments in the judicial system, says the United National Party.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_124188\" style=\"width: 213px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-124188\" class=\"size-full wp-image-124188\" alt=\"Priyantha Jayawardena\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg\" width=\"203\" height=\"221\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-124188\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Priyantha Jayawardena<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The nearest example is the appointment of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Priyantha+Jayawardena&amp;x=10&amp;y=5\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Priyantha Jayawardena<\/span><\/a> as a Supreme Court judge above the heads of many eligible candidates, sending shockwaves across the entire judicial system of the country.&#8221; the UNP said today.<\/p>\n<p>Issuing a statement the UNP said; &#8220;This was not the first time the present government acted in a dubious and\u00a0non-transparent manner when it came to key appointments in the judiciary. They\u00a0unabashedly\u00a0violated\u00a0long established\u00a0traditions of the system\u00a0and made the judicial service a safe haven for political stooges and henchmen. On the other hand, the government usurped the powers of the Constitutional Council set up by the 17<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment, with the implementation of the 18<sup>th<\/sup>Amendment which paved the way for family rule and autocracy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When it comes to appointments of the judiciary, factors such as eligibility, professional integrity, seniority and impartiality should be taken into consideration\u00a0as the main\u00a0criteria which determine\u00a0the suitability of\u00a0candidates. However, when considering the recent appointments in the judiciary including that of Priyantha Jayawardena it is crystal clear that the government pays little or no attention to such crucial factors and would go to any extent to handpick the \u201cpeople they prefer\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thanks to this arbitrary behavior shown by the government, the smooth functioning of the entire Legal System is now at stake. \u00a0As a result, the upward mobility in this system is becoming a privilege enjoyed by those who toe the line of the government. Legal practitioners with professional integrity have lost faith in the system which always gives preference to political allegiances over professional values and standards.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The appointment of Judges\u00a0is\u00a0of pivotal importance not only to the judiciary and the legal fraternity, but also to the entire society as they make a strong impact on the day to day functioning of the\u00a0society.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Constitutional Council, which functioned for a short period after the 17<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment was introduced, formulated a transparent\u00a0mechanism\u00a0to be followed pertaining to appointments of apex court judges. However, with the 18<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment to the Constitution, these essential safeguards were done away with. This was clearly demonstrated throughout the illegal impeachment of the 43<sup>rd<\/sup>\u00a0Chief Justice, in January, last year. The President now wields immense power and authority in the system and is in a position to\u00a0control the entire judiciary according to his or her own whims and fancies, much to the detriment of the people\u00a0of\u00a0Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As far as we know, at this point, there are three vacancies in the Supreme Court that need to be filled. One vacancy was created by the retirement of Justice Amaratunga and it has not been filled for the last 08 months. In addition, two more vacancies were also created by the end of March, taking the total up to three.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It appears that the Executive has ignored the present President of the Court of Appeal Justice Sisira Abrew and the Solicitor General Y W Wijetilake. Two months ago another vacancy\u00a0that came in the wake of the premature retirement of Justice Prem Ratnayake was filled after a hiatus of 08 months with the eighth\u00a0Junior person in the hierarchy of the Attorney General&#8217;s Department.\u00a0When making this appointment,\u00a0President\u00a0of the Court of Appeal late Justice SriSkandaraja and the Solicitor General were both overlooked. A few weeks later Justice Sriskandarajah passed away\u00a0with a broken heart.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Therefore, it is clear that the present government has breached age old traditions of the judicial service and circumvented the \u2018hierarchy\u2019 in the system in a bid to appoint political stooges to important positions. This has made a debilitating effect on the professional integrity of judges, ethics and values, plunging the entire system into a serious crisis.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":124188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Appointment Of Jayawardena To SC Sends Shockwaves Across Entire Judicial System: UNP - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Appointment Of Jayawardena To SC Sends Shockwaves Across Entire Judicial System: UNP - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-06T11:58:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-07T10:29:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"203\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"221\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/\",\"name\":\"Appointment Of Jayawardena To SC Sends Shockwaves Across Entire Judicial System: UNP - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-06T11:58:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-07T10:29:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg\",\"width\":203,\"height\":221,\"caption\":\"Justice Priyantha Jayawardena\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Appointment Of Jayawardena To SC Sends Shockwaves Across Entire Judicial System: UNP\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Appointment Of Jayawardena To SC Sends Shockwaves Across Entire Judicial System: UNP - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Appointment Of Jayawardena To SC Sends Shockwaves Across Entire Judicial System: UNP - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2014-05-06T11:58:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-07T10:29:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":203,"height":221,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/","name":"Appointment Of Jayawardena To SC Sends Shockwaves Across Entire Judicial System: UNP - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg","datePublished":"2014-05-06T11:58:26+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-07T10:29:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg","width":203,"height":221,"caption":"Justice Priyantha Jayawardena"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appointment-of-jayawardena-to-sc-sends-shockwaves-across-entire-judicial-system-unp\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Appointment Of Jayawardena To SC Sends Shockwaves Across Entire Judicial System: UNP"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Priyantha-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124184"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124192,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124184\/revisions\/124192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}