{"id":59621,"date":"2012-11-10T17:14:36","date_gmt":"2012-11-10T17:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=59621"},"modified":"2012-11-12T07:34:11","modified_gmt":"2012-11-12T07:34:11","slug":"trial-of-the-chief-justice-by-kangaroo-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/trial-of-the-chief-justice-by-kangaroo-court\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Trial Of The Chief Justice\u2019 \u2013 By Kangaroo Court?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Elmore Perera<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Elmore Perera<\/p><\/div>\n

A senior government source is reported to have stated on 08.11.2012\u00a0that \u201cThe PSC will work out the modalities for the sittings. It will\u00a0only allow a single counsel to accompany the Chief Justice<\/a><\/span> and would\u00a0allow witnesses or documents to be called only with the consent of a\u00a0majority of members,\u201d and also that \u201cthe government had no intention\u00a0of allowing representatives of the International Bar Association<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0International Judges\u2019 Association and Commonwealth Bar Association and\u00a0even the media to observe the proceedings as that would affect the\u00a0Sovereignty, the authority and the Independence of the Sri Lankan\u00a0Parliament if they were allowed to monitor or report or comment on the\u00a0PSC.\u201d \u00a0If this is not a Kangaroo (with apologies to the Kangaroos)\u00a0Court. I don\u2019t know, what is. Certain legalistic individuals,prostituting their questionable standing as legal luminaries, have\u00a0even advocated that these Kangaroos be clothed with Judicial powers tovalidate pronouncements based on their \u201cfindings\u201d. The purported\u00a0\u201cfindings\u201d may very well be clearly contrary to the weight of evidence\u00a0available. The modus operandi seems to be to shut out any information\u00a0regarding such evidence until the foul deed of impeachment is\u00a0concluded.<\/p>\n

This government source, the Speaker, and the PSC appointed by him,\u00a0must all realise that the only valid interpretation of \u201cSovereignty\u201d\u00a0as per the 1978 Constitution, is that given by the\u00a09-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Hon. Neville Samarakoon<\/a><\/span>\u00a0CJ \u00a0viz. \u201cSovereignty of the Sri Lankan People under the 1978\u00a0Constitution is one and indivisible. It remains with the People. It is\u00a0only the exercise of certain Legislative, Executive and Judicial\u00a0powers of the Sovereign People that are delegated to the Parliament,\u00a0the Executive and the Judiciary. Fundamental Rights and Franchise\u00a0remain with the People and the Supreme Court has been constituted the\u00a0guardian of such rights.\u201d There certainly cannot be any such thing as\u00a0\u201cSovereignty\u201d of Parliament. The Authority and Independence of\u00a0Parliament is limited to what is set out in the Constitution and\u00a0therefore the extent of such authority and independence are subject to\u00a0the interpretation of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

The impeachment of a President cannot be proceeded with unless the\u00a0Supreme Court, after due inquiry, finds that the President has been\u00a0guilty of any of the allegations contained in the resolution for his\u00a0impeachment. Can the impeachment of \u00a0a Chief Justice be based on a\u00a0finding of a motley group of Parliamentarians with no judicial\u00a0authority ? Clearly not ! Any such finding is clearly subject to\u00a0appropriate Judicial Review.<\/p>\n

It is self-evident that \u201cthe truth of a matter does not depend \u00a0on\u00a0how many believe it\u201d. The truth of the 14 allegations (several of\u00a0which seem to be clearly unfounded) certainly cannot be based on how
\nmany \u2018vote\u2019 for it. Cognizance must be taken of the fact that several\u00a0Parliamentarians who publicly professed to oppose \u00a0the 18th Amendment\u00a0did, however, for reasons best known to them, vote for it.<\/p>\n

The submission made by ex- Chief Justice \u00a0Sarath N. Silva<\/a><\/span> that the\u00a0impeachment exercise is \u201cpurely of a disciplinary nature relating to a\u00a0contract of employment \u00a0between the Judge and the Government of Sri\u00a0Lanka\u201d and that \u201cthe publication of the charges and the response moves\u00a0the issue into the realm of a public trial which will only harm the\u00a0Judiciary\u201d is, to say the least preposterous! The charges against him\u00a0were, at that time, all in the \u00a0public domain and any attempt \u00a0by him\u00a0to answer them would have been tantamount to digging his own grave.<\/p>\n

Without merely \u201csitting and staring at the Order Book\u201d, he took action\u00a0and was saved from the ignominy of impeachment by the timely\u00a0proroguing and subsequent dissolution of \u00a0Parliament, by his\u00a0benefactor President Kumaratunga, to whom he had administered the oath\u00a0of office, as President in 1999 and once again \u201csecretly\u201d in 2000, for\u00a0reasons best known to him.<\/p>\n

It was only because the charges contained in the impeachment motion\u00a0against her were made public, that the Chief Justice has been able to\u00a0refute them as convincingly as she has done. On the other hand, if\u00a0they were not publicised, the PSC could have gone through the motions\u00a0secretly and caused irrevocable harm to the Judiciary. In that event\u00a0no judge would in future dare to act independently to uphold the\u00a0rights of the Sovereign People, even in the face of patently unlawful\u00a0violations of the Fundamental Rights of the People.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this ex-CJ is not averse to this impeachment (which will\u00a0cause untold damage to the Judiciary) for the reason that his conduct\u00a0at the meeting of the JSC on 30th \u00a0December 2004, and the manner in\u00a0which he conducted the affairs of the JSC in the year 2005 (with the\u00a0active support of then Secretary of the JSC, Chandra Jayatilaka who\u00a0was recently appointed by the President to the Court of Appeal) which\u00a0resulted in the \u201cConstructive Termination\u201d of the tenure of\u00a0Bandaranayake<\/a><\/span> \u00a0J and Weerasuriya J as members of the J.S.C. in January\u00a02006, will thereby be permanently swept under the carpet.<\/p>\n

This trial must necessarily be conducted in as transparent a manner\u00a0as possible, to safeguard the independence of the Judiciary. It may be\u00a0necessary for Civil Society to take a stand to ensure this. \u00a0The\u00a0arbitrary and indiscriminate use of the law enforcement agencies to\u00a0suppress any dissent may require Civil Society to resort even to\u00a0peaceful Civil Disobedience. Failure to do so may seal the fate of\u00a0Democracy and pave the way for Ruthless Dictatorship.<\/p>\n

*Elmore Perera, Attorney-at-Law,Founder, Citizen\u2019s Movement for Good Governance,Past President, Organisation of Professional Associations<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":45717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,2938],"tags":[6315,6096,6316,6020,6314,6037],"class_list":["post-59621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial","category-popular","tag-ex-chief-justice-sarath-n-silva-that-the-impeachment","tag-impeachment-against-neville-samarakoon","tag-impeachment-against-sarath-n-silva","tag-impeachment-motion-against-chief-justice-shirani-bandaranayake","tag-impeachment-of-a-chief-justice-sri-lanka","tag-impeachment-of-the-chief-justice-sri-lanka"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Trial Of The Chief Justice\u2019 \u2013 By Kangaroo Court? - 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\/trial-of-the-chief-justice-by-kangaroo-court\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Trial Of The Chief Justice\u2019 \u2013 By Kangaroo Court? 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